After thinking of upgrading my fading OEM headlights to some newer style ones, I am definately considering upgrading to HID.

I would like to get your opinion about HID conversion kits you may have installed on your X, your installation experience and of course the result.

A few cornerstone questions of mine are:

Worth the money to go with Bi-Xenon (Hi/Low Beam) HID?
Any brand better than others?
Digital or not? Any difference?
Where did you buy yours, and how was the customer service?
How easy were the lights to install?


I am considering a Bi-Xenon upgrade to 5000K HID lights... any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

 

Xenon Hid Conversion Kits & Lighting Systems, Xenon Hid Lamps and Bulbs, Xenon Ballasts, Xenon Car Halo Kits | SparkHid.com

My budy just bought this kit and he is even more picky about quality then me surprisingly and he cant say enogh good about it. He added it to his exploder, and I will be adding it to my 05 headlight and fogs as well in the next week or two. Its all factory style weatherpacking, it truely looks like it came factory as long as you mount it nicely, all the connections are top notch.

The part that shocks most people is he takes the whole assembly and dunks it in a fishtank and it stays lit lol. Pretty good way to show your confidence in teh setup I think. He is also local to me and easy to find so if he gives you trouble I can go ring his neck for you lol.

 

I went with XenithXenons at 4300k. They were very easy to install. I went with the Bi-Xenon. Just keep the ballast away from the ABS box under the hod. I had it right next to it and the ABS light was on and the speedo would not work. I moved it 6" and all is OK now. Also, for some reason, when I put the high beams on the fogs stay on.

You will love them.

 

I was just reading about HID conversions today and now discovered, that all non-factory installed HID's (including all conversion kits) are illegal for street use in all 50 states? What the heck?

Anybody got ticketed for their HID's?

Just curious before spending all that $$$ of mine...

 

Any lights that does not have the DOT stamp is illegal for street use.

 

I wish we could get Projector style HID replacement headlights.... The OEM xenon projectors on my wife's A6 are awesome....

 

I dont think they can tell if you turn only the parking lights on after you get stopped. They cant look under hood without permission correct?

 

I feel sorry for you guys with older Ford products - my neighbor has an '01 350 1 ton, which, from the back of the front door foward, appears to be pretty much the same, ( absent one or two cosmetic changes), to my '05 EX Ltd. (both are V-10's).

His headlight lenses, like mine, are plastic. His vehicle spends a lot of time in the strong Arizona sun - those lenses have become so fogged over, his light output is probably less than a third of mine.

So I can understand why some of you are so interested in up-grading your headlights. Some of you have made good suggestions as to SAFE AND LEGAL up-grades.

I live in an isolated area, accessed by unlit country roads. Most of my long-distance driving is on un-lit Interstates in the mountain west. The last couple of miles of road to my ranch are dirt - little more than cow-trails.

I am VERY pleased with the "bone stock" lighting in the '05 series of Ford products. Anyone who can "over-drive" the head-lamps on "bone stock" '05 Ford products is going too fast for conditions.

A word of caution to using overly bright headlamps not properly aimed or designed for public road use.

Even the high-beams on conventonal head-lamps when on public roads can disturb or even blind on-coming drivers.

In some jurisdictions, if you are unlucky enough to have shined those overly bright head-lamps at a law officer's on-coming vehicle, you may find not only are you getting cited, many state's vehicle codes provide for the law officer to conclude your vehicle is unsafe, and subject to be impounded. So pi$$ing off un-coming drivers is not a wise practice.

That means you get to pay for the towing charge to the impound lot, and are then at the mercy of a local shop to bring your vehicle back into compliance with state vehicle code regs. before you can get it released. not funny.

 

A switch to HID's willd effinatly require an adjustment to the headlights. < usually pull about 15 feet or so away from a wall at night and adjust them from there. The light pattern will be different with an HID vs a standard bulb, and each headlight will react somewhat differently. Being as theres at least 3 stock style headlights that I know of that came on teh excursions over the years everyone will just have to play with adjusting them and report back as to the pattern the lights produce. I have aftermarket factory appearance 05 lenses and I will report back what I find after my conversion. Theres a chance I may do it this weekend.