2013 F150 Headlights listed on fordparts.com

[daviddc114]

i actually just confirmed my theory, there is a 10A fuse for each low beam and a 15A for each high beam, there is no need to install any other wiring. i tested the draw of the osram OEM style ballast and it has a max draw of about 10.2 amps, then gradually drops to about 3.6A. the max draw of 10.2A lasts for about 5 seconds so i do not believe this should blow the 10A fuse. if you think about it, when you buy an HID kit, the instructions usually call for useing the factory wiring. the 2 power wires for the OSRAM OEM ballasts are just for the internal relay. if you are looking at the connector in the back of the 2013 headlights you will see there is 4 pins. looking at the headlight connector with the headlight in the upright position, the pins are as follows.. green orange blue black. green and orange are the power feeds for the ballast, just splice these together and connect them both to your low beam headlight feed. blue is the solenoid for the actuator to redirect the light in high beam mode, just splice this to your high beam feed, and lastly black to your ground. that's all. just cut off your factory H13 connector and splice in the replacement ford connector for the 2013 lights, wire as instructed and now your truck is retrofitted for the 2013 lights. no other wiring or relays needed.

 

[tuxedoblack11]

i actually just confirmed my theory, there is a 10A fuse for each low beam and a 15A for each high beam, there is no need to install any other wiring. i tested the draw of the osram OEM style ballast and it has a max draw of about 10.2 amps, then gradually drops to about 3.6A. the max draw of 10.2A lasts for about 5 seconds so i do not believe this should blow the 10A fuse. if you think about it, when you buy an HID kit, the instructions usually call for useing the factory wiring. the 2 power wires for the OSRAM OEM ballasts are just for the internal relay. if you are looking at the connector in the back of the 2013 headlights you will see there is 4 pins. looking at the headlight connector with the headlight in the upright position, the pins are as follows.. green orange blue black. green and orange are the power feeds for the ballast, just splice these together and connect them both to your low beam headlight feed. blue is the solenoid for the actuator to redirect the light in high beam mode, just splice this to your high beam feed, and lastly black to your ground. that's all. just cut off your factory H13 connector and splice in the replacement ford connector for the 2013 lights, wire as instructed and now your truck is retrofitted for the 2013 lights. no other wiring or relays needed.

Not trying to be a snob here but any hid kit that says to plug directly into the oem sockets are just plain wrong. Relays are made for a reason and are a very good safety measure rather than potentially destroying your trucks wiring system. Yes it may work on your factory electrical system, but for how long? Would you rather spend hundreds fixing your trucks electrical system or less than a bill replacing a relay harness? Save a few extra bucks, buy a relay harness....ask any true hid guy and he'll tell you the same.

Just my .02

 

[daviddc114]

i am a master electrician and i specialize in motor control which is a lot of DC voltage and relay control. Your vehicle already utilizes relays in its headlight system. as long as you leave the factory specified fuses in your fuse panel, the worse that could happen is you blow a fuse, at which point you upgrade to an external relay with thicker gauge wire that can handle a larger fuse. as i said in my previous post, it starts for the first few seconds at 10 amps, but immediately drops down to 3.6 amps. your telling me you think a 3.6 amp draw is going to damage a circuit made to handle 10 amps. you can all wire your trucks how you want, i just like a clean install. as long as the fuse holds i know i am good, i would rather not have extra wiring and relays hanging around my engine bay. plus i hate having accessory wires running to my battery. im sure my circuit calculations are correct and i in no way see an issue.

 

[Ni9mm]

^^ ooh ooh light fight...

 

[hosseface]

i am a master electrician and i specialize in motor control which is a lot of DC voltage and relay control. Your vehicle already utilizes relays in its headlight system. as long as you leave the factory specified fuses in your fuse panel, the worse that could happen is you blow a fuse, at which point you upgrade to an external relay with thicker gauge wire that can handle a larger fuse. as i said in my previous post, it starts for the first few seconds at 10 amps, but immediately drops down to 3.6 amps. your telling me you think a 3.6 amp draw is going to damage a circuit made to handle 10 amps. you can all wire your trucks how you want, i just like a clean install. as long as the fuse holds i know i am good, i would rather not have extra wiring and relays hanging around my engine bay. plus i hate having accessory wires running to my battery. im sure my circuit calculations are correct and i in no way see an issue.

Wrong. When you turn your high beams on without a relay harness your low beam loses power.

Go ahead and try it and see what happens. There is one MAJOR flaw in your thinking. The OEM harness has three wires - ground, hot on low, hot on high. When you have your low beams on, you have ground and hot on low. When you have your high beams on, you have ground and hot in high. Guess what, your HID bulb goes off in high beam because it requires constant power according to your theory. You would only have power to the high beam projector solenoid.

Not to mention there is a required constant power (hot at all times) fourth wire which our trucks don't have. Like I said, I've done my homework on this plus I'm a professional auto tech and own my own shop.

 

[Squatting Dog]

Wrong. When you turn your high beams on without a relay harness your low beam loses power.

Go ahead and try it and see what happens. There is one MAJOR flaw in your thinking. The OEM harness has three wires - ground, hot on low, hot on high. When you have your low beams on, you have ground and hot on low. When you have your high beams on, you have ground and hot in high. Guess what, your HID bulb goes off in high beam because it requires constant power according to your theory. You would only have power to the high beam projector solenoid.

Not to mention there is a required constant power (hot at all times) fourth wire which our trucks don't have. Like I said, I've done my homework on this plus I'm a professional auto tech and own my own shop.

Hossface is EXACTLY correct. That is why on all HID retrofits you have to connect to the battery. To provide a constant 12 volts to the ballasts.

-Greg

 

[UniqueOne]

I am wondering how OEM 2013 F150 HID headlights wiring does? If someone who has 2013 Raptor can take a couple pictures, it would be great. I agree that it needs a relay for HID retrofit.

 

[daviddc114]

You are correct on the high beam issue, I wasn't thinking of that, you may loose low beams when switching to high depending on how the factory circuit it, I was only thinking of flash to pass which would still work... But your wrong on the required 4th wire, there is no 4th wire REQUIRED, and the OSRAM ballasts have an internal relay, that's why there is an extra wire. One is for the line power and one is for the trigger. If your trigger has adequate power you can just tie these 2 together. I don't have to do homework, and I'm constantly building circuits in my head ;-)

 

[tuxedoblack11]

^^ ooh ooh light fight...

Haha no just discussion. But I still agree with hoss and my theory, relay harnesses are cheap why would you want to deliberately sabatoge your h13 connector??? And then if you trade it off you can't resell the lights cuz stock halogens won't plug in where you cut the plug off!!!

 

[daviddc114]

Before I was an electrician I was also afraid of cutting wires. As long as you do it right there's no need to worry. Simply cut off h13 connector but make sure you have a good 2 or 3 inches of wire on them. Solder the new connector on, use heat shrink and loom... Then when you sell the truck, and if you put it back to h13 just cut the hid connector off and solder the h13 plug back on... Simple... If you don't know how to solder and use shrink wrap, trust me teach yourself. you will feel much more confident working with wires knowing you can fix them..