Hello FTE,

Back in late January my beloved F250 was involved in an accident. Unfortunately the truck was totaled and the insurance company paid out. Once the dust settled, I went looking for a new truck for a replacement. My wife found this one. It's a 2016 F350 CCSB XLT with premium, Fx4, 5/GN, Snow plow prep Chrome packages. The bed has spray in bed liner. 4 wheel drive with ESOF and is geared as 3.73 Elocker. The tire package is LT275/70/R18 Michellin's. The radio is stand Am/FM/Cd but with Sat Radio. The color of the truck is Ingot Silver.





Fortunately, my 2011 was able to donate the Bakflip G2 bed cover and the Weather tech floor liners for the front and rear.

Current list of plans for the truck.

Near term
Factory remote start. The parts are on order and waiting for delivery.
LED lighting of the interior and exterior marker lights.

Long term
Regear to at least 4.30s
A nice set of tires. Thinking Toyo Open Country's
Replacing the stereo and adding a back up camera.
Splash guards and wheel liners.
Window vents
Front window tint
Thinking about replacing the head light housings. A friend of mine just did his 2015 F350 6.7 and it looks great and he recommended it as well.

That's it for now...

 

I like the upgrade to 4.30! And beautiful truck, best of luck with it

 

Thanks! I like the truck too! I need to find the money right now for a regear. There are a couple of projects the wife has given a green light before the gearing. A new radio is on the list. The small stuff like mud guards, wheel well liners vent shades and the like are on the father's day lists according to the wife. However she didn't reject the big ticket items like tires, rims or the gearing. So we will see what the boss whats to do first. Nothing is off the table per the boss.

 

The "boss"...LOL
I kid though, im not even married yet and mine rules with an iron thumb

 

The remote start kit came in and I went to install it only to find out well I don't have any double sided tape in my workshop. It was used up in a previous project. Apparently the 2016s require the headliner to be pulled down to gain access to the module for the remote start connection. It couldn't be in the glove box like the rest of the other model years. Then I will have to deal with a dealer to get the keys cut and remote start programmed using the IDS. Tomorrow I will stop on the way home to get some tape and check out the head liner area for the antenna hook up and call the dealer for a drop off for programming.

 

 

I finally had a few minutes this morning to look into installing the remote start antenna. Guess what? Someone had already done this on the truck. So it looks like I will need to schedule up the truck this morning for a cut and program check for the keys to become remote starting again.

The other night I ordered up LED bulbs for the truck, All of them should be coming in except for the rear dome lights as those are festoons. My wife forgot to have those upgraded for Saturday delivery. Thankfully basically 20 T10 equivalents can handle the whole truck. So I got that working for me. AS for the headlight housings, I was looking at a set of Spyder Autos which are the same ones my friend used in his '15 350. We were talking and he thought the chrome and smoke or chrome and clear would like better with my truck. Well I got thinking and said, I will just upgrade the bulbs instead as the housing in the chrome and clear look too close to stock to make it worth the time to perform and upgrade at this time. So I ordered a set of LED Headlight bulbs and will see how well they work this go around. I had a different set that were not as bright as advertised and factor bulbs worked better. Go figure.

 

 

Hi

I set of JDM Star H13s bulbs for the 2011. Even after adjusting the light output was poor. It was so poor I actually bought a replacement set of halogens which were brighter than the LEDs. It had better light to the road surface. The new ones I ordered were Hikari Bulbs. My buddy tossed them into his truck and he said they were excellent. I did check out the beam tech bulbs but after trying a cheap bulb I was gun shy about another set.

I got the dealer to check the remote start programming and keys. Everything worked except one key. A short phone call with the Ford dealer I bought the remote start kit from and the service manager from the place I bought the truck from had a conversation to verify the key remote start function was bad. First the Ford dealer offered to have a parts swap warranty and the dealer said they didn't have the key in stock as they had already checked. So the parts dealer is sending out a replacement key and the servicing dealer is going to cut and have the key programmed. Everyone was happy in the end. So now I have a remote start with the truck. It's the little things in life.

While playing around on the phone, I found another mod I would like to do. Upgrade the steering wheel to leather rapped. My wife suggested a cover I said no as the last time she did a cover, it sucked.

 

I was in a similar boat but I tried an expensive set of leds and they sucked. It left a bad taste in my mouth for a while which is why I tried the cheap set to see if the ones with the leds positioned like the filaments in a halogen worked before I bought an expensive set again I was originally going to try the headlight revolution bulbs but the were enough not so positive review on here about them and the flickering not to mention supply and customer service issues and their stupid heat sinks. I went into them with pretty low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. Nice looking new truck btw.

 

First real haul in the new truck. Sorry no pictures as time was a factor. 90 cases of girl scout cookies. We picked up 110 cases for my daughter's troop. The other 20 went into my Explorer. I could have taken the other 20 cases if I didn't have the dog and the daughter in the back of the truck which both by the way approve of the new truck. My wife is the cookie coordinator for the troop this year.

The lights came in but I didn't have time to install as I was helping getting the orders together for other girls in the troop.

 

Today was a good day. It was nice and sunny out. My neighbor noticed I had the truck's front end pulled apart. It was LED upgrade day.

Parts List for this project

Hikari H13 LED Headlight bulb kit 9600 lumen Cree XHP 50
Hikari Anti Flicker module kit
JDM Astar Max Bright 50W H10/ 9145 LED bulbs
Yorkim T10 194 5SMD LED white 10/pk (3)
Yorkim 42mm 6 SMD 212-2 4/pk
Sylvania LED 3157 Red 2/pk
Sylvania LED 3157 Amber 2/pk
Sylvania ZEVO LED 921 2/pk

The front of the truck was disassembled and prepped for LED upgrades. (4) 10mm screws along the top and 3 screws on the each head light with only the top screw loosened for the removal of the housing. Nitrile gloves were worn to avoid finger oils getting on the bulbs being removed. I had 1 inch wide 3M double sided tape on hand to mount the Anti Flicker modules to radiator mounting structure. First I removed the side marker bulb from the housing and replaced it with a Yorkim T10. Next the front turn signal bulb was removed and the Sylvania LED 3157A's were installed. Next, the Anti Flicker module was installed to the respective side's radiator supports. A touch of Di-Electric grease was applied and the head light connector was attached to the AFM. Next came the install of the LED bulbs themselves. I removed the H13 bulbs carefully from the housings and placed them in a small plastic bag. Once again I applied some Di Electric grease to the connector for connection of the LED bulbs and installed the bulbs into the housing. The Hikari kit was simple to clock. There was no requirement for a tool to adjust the clocking. I simply turned the rear housing of the bulb to clock it to the 9 and 3 position. Yes it's that simple. Next I removed the Fog lamp bulbs and replacement them with the JDM Astar replacements. The connectors received a touch of DG before reinstall. Finally the front end was rebuilt and checked for fit.

The front lighting was checked for function. As expected hyper flashing from the front turn signals was discovered. I went inside to retrieve the laptop with Forscan on it. First the licensing was expired and I had to update that. Next the laptop had a couple of driver updated for the blue tooth to function correctly. I used a BAFX OBD2 Bluetooth ELM327 to access the vehicle. Cheap and it works very well. Once I got the laptop running, it found the interface without a problem. Updated the licensing key and I was set. I found the turn signal lamp front and rear in the BCM. Those were updated to disabled so the hyper flashing would cease. Which it did. I disabled the rear as well knowing I was going to be replacing the bulbs. Once this function was performed. I performed a quality check of the lighting in which all lighting was functioning correctly. As a matter of fact. Perfect since in 2011 I had the same procedure performed and had to find an LED bulb that worked. The Sylvanis worked the best but there was a small amount of leakage on the side that was not turning which caused that bulb to slightly flash as well. I had a set of JDM Astars in the front they were bright but they would all blink both sides when the turn signal was selected. It would stop when the park and or the headlights were on. In this 2016, there is nothing that is showing this issue. Which is a good thing.

Next I moved on to the mirror lighting. I replaced the 2 bulbs in each turn signal/ marker light assembly with T10 white LEDs. Next I worked my way across the roof clearance lights. While replacing the bulbs with more T10s, I cleaned out each plastic amber lens from any build up or moisture. While in this area of the truck, I replaced the bulbs in the front map lights. I found if you remove the plastic lens piece and then remove the metal reflector you can access the bulbs much easier and quicker. Once again my friends T10 White LEDs showed up for this. Now I moved on to the CHMSL for bulb replacement there. The festoon LED replacements did not arrive in time for this project so the original incandescent bulbs are in place. Removing the CHMSL is easy. 2 phillips screws and remove the CHMSL. I used 3 more T10 White LEDs here. I found removing the socket from the Right and Center makes it easier to replace the left cargo light.

At this point I had to stop as I didn't have the bulbs I wanted for the rear. Since my wife needed to run out, I would price check a local source in this case Advanced Auto since it was on our route to Amazon. The couple of dollars of savings was not as great for waiting another couple of days, I just bought them from the store. These were the tail light bulbs. I forgot to order them when I placed the order from Amazon. I went with the Sylvania LED 3157 Red since I had a great experience with the Ambers in the front turn signals. Originally I was going to replace the 921 reverse lights with T10s White LEDs but I remember them being bright but not super bright. I elected to check out the ZEVO line from Sylvania. Reviews reported a nice bright light and good overall experience. So those where going to be the replacements for the reverse lighting.

The wife and I returned from our errands. Light was fading fast even with the extra hour of daylight. I removed the tail light housings from the truck. I used an 8 mm socket to remove the screws and a plastic body moulding tool to remove the housing from the truck. I removed the bulbs from the housing and replaced them with the LEDs I had just purchased. I made sure the polarity was correct and performed a test of the Reverse lighting and turn signals. All tested good. Reinstalled the housings to the bed and performed a walk around turn signal and 4 way test. All LEDs were functioning correctly and no weird issues. Finally I replaced the Rear license lighting. My friends T10 White LEDs were there for the replacement.

With light now fading quickly I tried out the headlights. Right off the bat, I could see a great deal of difference. The light was crisp and white. They looked right at or may be a hair low however, I would have to take it out for a night test run to determine if any adjustments would need to be made. I also checked for RF interference. When I live in NJ, I am able to get several FM stations out of Philadelphia and New York as well as the local FM/ AM channels. I know in the past, there was always some form of RFI from HIDs which I loved the light but hated when I was not able to tune in the radio. My first set of LEDs were better but you could get the static when the headlights were turned on. These new bulbs had very little if any when turned on. Low Beam. High beam. Fog lights on or off. No static coming from the radio. That's a good thing in my book.

After taking care of some family time, I took the truck out for a test run. Some local 2 lane back roads, a main drag and then a 4 lane highway. Since I do not have a wall to check the alignment against, I took the truck to the local school. When I checked the wall, the bulbs where sitting at nice level and even at 30 feet from the wall. Then I drove around and lighting on the road was excellent. I checked to see if I was lighting up the cabins of on coming vehicles. No flashing of the high beams or anything. Down a dark road, the lighting looked great. Even and dispersed well. The busier main drag was the same thing. No one seemed to have an issue. The same was true on the highway. The test ride seemed to be a success. It was worth the time and money to upgrade at this point. Now I know the crowd likes pictures so here are some.


This is from about 30 feet away against the school wall. The snow pile didn't help but it was low enough to check level and overall of the light. They cut off at pretty much the same spot without scribbling on the wall. I tried to take the picture from the side of the truck hanging the camera over the front. It might look a little tilted.




Back from the test ride. Just a nice front view of the truck with the new lighting.



Driver's view of the lighting. This is low beams and IIRC foglights on. The street I took this on is nice and dark. I think the snow and some of the road salt is amplifing the light in the picture. However I had my old 2011 with HIDs down the same street and the lighting was the same.



A shot of the rear of the truck. Looks good.




I hope this helps anyone looking to perform a similar upgrade to their vehicle. I listed the items I used since I had great luck with those products such as the Sylvania 3157s or the Yorkim T10s. I have purchased at least 100 of the Yorkim bulbs with great success and I recommend them for any application. The Hikari LED set was a shot in the dark with a recommendation from a friend. I am glad I listened to another fellow Ford owner on this one. One project down. Still many more to come. Thanks for following this thread.

 

Today the replacement remote key was cut and programmed. Now I have 2 regular keys and 2 remote start keys for the truck. My work hours have been taking me later into the evening in which I was able to use the headlights. Very impressed with the light output. They remind me of my old HID lighting package I had in my 2011 F250. I called the place where I had windows tinted before for an appointment for this truck. The wife has a holding pattern on some other items like tires or the gearing. She wanted to get some of the loan paid off and things are OK at this time.

 

I know the thread has been slow. Nothing really going on due to the cooler weather and work load. Today I was able to run some wire to the rear of the truck for the bed lights and the back up supplement lights. I was able to get the bed light wired in and running. I was pretty impressed with the light output this kit. It was pretty cheap at Walmart. I want to say around $20 bucks. Here is the fun of this. I bought a wiring harness kit for the rear lighting package which was not going to work but it had had enough parts to make this project work. LOL I was able to use the fused link, light switch and the wiring for the project so it was not a waste of money. In the pictures, I have the lights strung up like Christmas lights since I wanted to wait til it's warmer for the adhesive tape to stick better with bed or the Bakflip rails. I have the lights wired for constant 12 V for the use without the keys or the switches.








The next part of the project will be the rear lighting. I didn't have the time to punch though the firewall for the uplift switches wire up as well the adding the lights. Probably next week. stay tuned....

 

Truck looks great, yours is nearly exactly like mine except crew cab. My LED lighting is waiting on me to install it as well.