HID Projector Retrofit

[Reptar]

sorry for the double post guys, was typing up my last reply when these last ones were made.

Reptar, that "guy" you're referring to is Randy, right?

No, deeper into ford than Randy. Randy sourced us that info on the blue seats, but that info came from somewhere deeper into ford, and if they're saying HID's for 2013, I believe it as well.

Yeah that's a pretty major upgrade, its not like they just change out the headlights there's ballast's, relay's and they would probably change the entire wiring harness. I would love to see it and think they should come like that but I bet it comes with the next model change, around 2015.

It's not all that major. As I mentioned in my last post while typing it up, the 97-03 F-150 SYlvania Xenarc HID retrofit, was FULL HID housings, not just HID bulbs, the full housings were redesigned for HID bulbs, they had INTERNAL ballasts, the lights swapped right in place of the factory housings, they plugged right into the factory wiring, and the only additional wiring was 1 positive, 1 negative, and 1 relay. That was it. Like I said Visteon who made the OEM housings also made the SYlvania HID housings, the ballasts were all internal to the light housings, and it was 2 extra wires. I'm sure Ford would change the harness so it was a full plug and play on the assembly line, but hooking up a relay and an extra +/- would be pretty easy cake work for doing an OEM swap onto 2012's.

Not to mention it will be stupid expensive to retro to oem (if it were to happen) I called Audi last year to see what it would cost to upgrade my wifes A3 to projectors - $2500 for parts and $300 for labor, lol. The funniest part is if I would have just bought her car with the premium plus pkg. it would have came with them and a few other things and only cost a extra $2000.

I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap, but if we're talking $1-2k to do projector retrofits in OEM housings that are DIY, very time consuming, and labor intensive, and no guarantees on the quality you're getting, I'd rather spend that same money on a set of OEM ones. For one audi stuff is expensive no matter what, so a Ford setup should be cheaper, and should run right about what custom ones would be anyway, so in that case I'd rather have OEM.

 

[Raptor Retrofit]

Executor, do you know why exactly is the Ford reflectors worse than the Chevrolet's or Dodge's? I'm just curious.

Thanks to the DOT most American cars with projectors due not have a clear lens. Most European cars do. Im not going to get into detail about it but its one of the differences between a quality projector and a crap one. you can read about the difference here - Lens Swaps: Clearly the best choice from The Retrofit Source Inc

EDIT - sorry I thought you were talking about projectors.

 

[executor485]

Executor, do you know why exactly is the Ford reflectors worse than the Chevrolet's or Dodge's? I'm just curious.

The Dodge/Chevy are worse than the Ford... If it wasn't clear its because I'm still asleep.
They're "worse" in that they scatter the light MUCH worse. Everyone that I've talked to says that their old Chevy/Dodge had way better light output than their new F150, and they're pretty upset about it. Their reflectors do a much better job lighting up the road and halogens are great in them. When people thrown an HID setup into them, it's TOO bright because of the reflective pattern.
Contrary to that, our reflector pattern sucks. The reflectors are made for both high and low beams, which likely contributes to the bad light output (comparatively to Chevy/Dodge). It's all in the pattern of the reflector, and it seems that Chevy/Dodge have better patterns but, it leads to more glare with an HID bulb.

 

[DEADEYE]

holding out for another year with the hopes that the 2013's HID lights will retrofit into our trucks.

Crome some of the spy shots and the fact they are running out of easy model year changes along with the fact Ford uses them on outher products I think this is a slam dunk. The price for OEM WILL BLOW THOUGH.

 

[White608]

Im retrofitting a set of stock headlights right now. Ill install them in my truck, make sure they are dialed in and work properly then offer them for sale.

and I can't wait lol

 

[Humvee21]

I'm interested in a factory OEM pair. Maybe I'll have to order another 2013 and trade up...

 

[executor485]

Yeah and in a perfect world shit would smell like roses.

The reason you only see self leveling in premium European vehicles is because they are extremely expensive. You think Mazda or hyundai is going to offer a car with a $5000 headlight upgrade option

Of course it's expensive, but it's the "right" way to do things. If the argument everyone stands by is the safety of other drivers on the road, the facts dont change just because Mazda and Hyundai are "too cheap". They're endangering other drivers by using cheap and low quality lighting.

 

[Humvee21]

Back when Ford made the Pinto, instead of recalling all Pintos they decided to handle each claim individually. By doing this, they took the risk that not all Pintos would light up and explode. With each claim being handled individually Ford saved quite a sum of money.

It's obvious that car makers are not thinking about the "right thing to do."

 

[Raptor Retrofit]

Of course it's expensive, but it's the "right" way to do things. If the argument everyone stands by is the safety of other drivers on the road, the facts dont change just because Mazda and Hyundai are "too cheap". They're endangering other drivers by using cheap and low quality lighting.

I hear ya man, your just talking about a "in a perfect world scenario" unfortunately thats not where we live.

Halogens are going to be obsolete in the next 5 years and just like projectors have come down in price and are in more and more vehicles, the same will be true for self leveling projectors and led headlights in the future. Audi took the first step in led this year for cars and so did Ducati for bikes. I cant vouch for performance but they are some of the sexiest looking headlights Ive ever seen !

 

[White608]

I work at a Caterpillar dealership, a lot more things are coming in with HID and LED lighting. Instead of 16 halogen lights it might have 6 hid and 5 halogens.