My 99 has the old ribbed style headlights, and they are yellowed and dull. This gives me a opportunity to rationalize changing them...

I do NOT care about appearance. Only function.
I will be using high quality DOT legal capsules in them.
I will have at least one set of fog lights. Probably a set of driving lights for desolate driving as well.

That said, I want the best focused, most well designed reflectors that put all the light down where it is needed during NORMAL driving. I'll have fogs to light the sides of the road. Based on past experiences, I am not even considering aftermarket headlights. All the ones I've ever tried looked flashy but were horrible. Planning on going with OE Ford unless I learn something here.

Would you recommend:
a) Sand and polish stockers.
b) Replace with pre-2005 "diamond clear"
c) Replace with 2005+ style (yes, I know about mods to mount them.)
d) Replace with Harley edition lights. I suspect those are just a styling exercise, but maybe they work better as well?

So if you've tried multiple styles with equal quality capsules in them (new capsules are always brighter), I'd appreciate your opinion. Which threw the best pattern?

 

The pre 05 clear and the 2005+ work well if you use a good bulb in them. I use the sylvania silverstar ultras and they light up quite nicely.

 

2005+ style headlights with the silverstar bulbs is the way to go! i fought to get good lighting, and that is what it took. you can see the different ones in my galleries.

 

I would highly recommend just fixing your OEM lights and putting some killer bulbs in it like was recommended. I've never used one, but they have the kits out to polish the lenses.

You can also use a 2 stage buff using a white compound to start, then a blue to polish. All the time using LOTS & LOTS of water to make sure the plastic stays cool. It also works great using 2 different polishing wheels. One being stiff and the other really soft to do a give a good polish.

Trying to get some business doing this several years ago, Ì have done this procedure to approx 200 headlights. I know it'll work!

 

American Air-1 has the best idea if you have the time and don't mind using a little elbow grease. Should be cheaper than the replacements but I would definitely use the Sylvania Silverstar Ultras. The factory halogens in my '05 weren't much brighter than the park lights. Switched to SilverStars and then to Ultras before I was satisfied. No heat issues so far.

 

I just switched from my 03 clear headlights to the 05 headlights (aftermarket 05 remake, DOT approved) and I think my 03 provided more light, and distributed the light more evenly and illuminated things a little better. Not drastic, but noticeable. This is in combination with the factory foglights.

As far as polishing your stock ones goes, they usually get hazy on the inside as well as the outside and are soon useless other then to appear illuminated to keep the police from ticketing you, but are worthless for actually lighting anything. I would definitely look at the "crystal" headlights, or the 05+


i am a big fan of silverstar light bulbs as well.

 

I disagree. In the early days, I split the headlight assemblies thinking the same thing. I quickly found out that was NOT the case. You can polish the lenses so clear that they will actually sparkle.

BTW, using a buffer or buffing wheel on a machine(like I did), theres not much elbow grease involved. I never had a buffer to do it on the car, I had to remove them to do it on a mounted machine.

 

Simply go to ebay and buy an aftermarket bi-xenon 30 watt 4300K HID conversion kit. If you have 9007 bulbs be sure and get the HID bulbs that tilt rather than telescope. I would also, of course, replace the yellowed headlight assemblies.

And keep in mind that the use of fog lights should be RESTRICTED to foggy conditions in daylight hours. Otherwise they will be detrimental to your distance vision at night as highlights are legally required during night time hours.

 

I disagree with getting HIDs unless they have a proper projector that includes the light shield. HIDs in halogen housings throw out too much light into oncoming traffic. Very unsafe.

 

The clear pre-05 lights or the 05+ lights are about as good as you can go - add the Silverstars or Xtravisions (same as the Silverstars but without the bluish ting), and go with an upgraded headlight harness and you will be seeing everything.

Mine are still the stock 00 lights but with the upgraded harness and Xtravisions, and they're very adequate.

 

Many of the newer aftermarket bi-xenon kits have the low beam upper "shading" light shield in place as a part of the bulb assembly.

Yes, the upper cutoff shading for the low beam mode is undoubtedly highly desireable. But many OEM/factory systems are still being shipped without that aspect. I suspect the real problem is that DIY owners tend to tinker with the beam pattern coverage. This latter seems to be especially the case with the newer OEM versions that have the upper beam pattern cutoff sheild to restrict the low beam forward coverage. These owners are going out of their way to raise the low beam coverage.

 

Whats the new "upgraded harness" I have heard about?...and where can they be found?

 

It is a harness that wires from your battery to your headlights through a relay. It uses the stock headlight wiring to close the relay. This allows the electricity from the batteries to take a shorter circuit to the lights so you don't have as much power loss. I think I read where someone measuerd the voltage at the light socket before and after the upgrade harness and found it was almost 2 Volts higher.

I got mine from Dfuser.

 

Thank you all. I was planning to add heavier wires and relays while doing the install. I have also been using Sylvania Silverstar Ultras as my default capsules, glad to see others reaching the same conclusions I do! Both of those are things I do to all vehicles.

On the HID's, I've found that the reflector is the most significant factor affecting the "blinding" factor. Some research will show you that the DOT REQUIRES a certain percentage of light be aimed (by the reflector assembly) into the eyes of oncoming traffic. European standards do not. As a general rule, I will not put HID's into any reflector/len assembly that meets DOT standards - only if they meet European standards and are illegal to DOT. If you can read street signs on a pitch black night, do not install HID's into that light assembly. Unless you like driving head on into lots and lots of blind people....