2009 - 2014 F-150

Head lights suck, on F150's need help

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Old 03-11-2012, 02:19 PM
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Head lights suck, on F150's need help

Why ford cant put nice headlights and wipers on a truck is beyond me either way. If im going to spend money I am looking at HID. I dont want conversion kits of the original housing or just HID light bulbs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Slim-8K-HID-...67cbe8&vxp=mtr

I have found something like this which has the ballast but only says low beam. SO what are you using for your high beam? AM I confusing the HID concept here?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/09-F150-LED-...60234764101021

now this one says high beam??
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 02:55 PM
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I put in silverstars. Made it better. Also ford out of the factory was adjusted way low. Couple cranks upade it eve better.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 03:31 PM
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Originally Posted by projetmech
I put in silverstars. Made it better. Also ford out of the factory was adjusted way low. Couple cranks upade it eve better.
i did silver stars before in my diesel, problem is at 50 bucks a shot or more and they only last maybe a year. want something more permanent.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 03:55 PM
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nards444, you must drive on some pretty rough roads...I put Silverstars (head and fog bulbs) in my '03 Superduty and all four were still good when it was sold after nine years the last two in Louisiana where they have really rough roads. The Silverstars in my F-150 are still good after 2.5 years
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 04:14 PM
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Originally Posted by nards444
Why ford cant put nice headlights and wipers on a truck is beyond me either way. If im going to spend money I am looking at HID. I dont want conversion kits of the original housing or just HID light bulbs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Slim-8K-HID-...67cbe8&vxp=mtr

I have found something like this which has the ballast but only says low beam. SO what are you using for your high beam? AM I confusing the HID concept here?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/09-F150-LED-...60234764101021

now this one says high beam??

Fek .... WTF ???

Y'all need to get out of the 2009-2012 forum more

There is a forum dedicated to this here topic, and within that forum lay all yer answers:

Right here: https://www.f150online.com/forums/il...guide-how.html

See Stormsearch's installation.

And - fergit that thar Fleabay PnP garbage yer lookin' at, fer Chrissakes... what' s next? J.C Whitney? LMAO! Y'all really don't like yer truck?

Yer go-to place fer components is here: http://www.theretrofitsource.com/
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 04:33 PM
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Originally Posted by MGDfan
Fek .... WTF ???

Y'all need to get out of the 2009-2012 forum more

There is a forum dedicated to this here topic, and within that forum lay all yer answers:

Right here: https://www.f150online.com/forums/il...guide-how.html

See Stormsearch's installation.

And - fergit that thar Fleabay PnP garbage yer lookin' at, fer Chrissakes... what' s next? J.C Whitney? LMAO! Y'all really don't like yer truck?

Yer go-to place fer components is here: http://www.theretrofitsource.com/
Yup been there and checked that out already, read my OP. I am not looking for a retro fit, looking for a replacement. I like my truck but for 40k somebody put worse then chinese lights in the truck to begin with.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 04:40 PM
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Originally Posted by nards444
Yup been there and checked that out already, read my OP. I am not looking for a retro fit, looking for a replacement. I like my truck but for 40k somebody put worse then chinese lights in the truck to begin with.
Good luck with that - the replacements are ALL CHINGLISH JUNK.
And you'll get what you wanted to avoid.

Stay stock - y'all really don't know what you want, or what is clearly best.

Yeah I read yer OP - wuz hopin' you'd listen to reason. Oh well ... yer the guy who thinks running 93 octane will 'clean things out', so I know yer a lost cause anyway ... LMAO!!! Where TF did you learn that, anyway? Someone is pullin' yer wee-wee,

If ya had any sense, and any mechanical skills, you'd suck it up, do a Proper retorfit and have stellar lighting. Because NOTHING else will do that for you.

Best of luck, in any case, bud.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 06:59 PM
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Originally Posted by MGDfan
Good luck with that - the replacements are ALL CHINGLISH JUNK.
And you'll get what you wanted to avoid.

Stay stock - y'all really don't know what you want, or what is clearly best.

Yeah I read yer OP - wuz hopin' you'd listen to reason. Oh well ... yer the guy who thinks running 93 octane will 'clean things out', so I know yer a lost cause anyway ... LMAO!!! Where TF did you learn that, anyway? Someone is pullin' yer wee-wee,

If ya had any sense, and any mechanical skills, you'd suck it up, do a Proper retorfit and have stellar lighting. Because NOTHING else will do that for you.

Best of luck, in any case, bud.
Your a weird man.

stock is junk ya know what I mean yo. Probably made in chinglish anyways just like the replacements. And pretty clear on what I want and its not what your describing.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 07:05 PM
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My 2005 had much better lights than my 2011 and I think it was because I lowered the 2005 2" in the rear. I may try raising the lights a bit as suggested.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 07:24 PM
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Is there a good set of replacement housing available? Right now I'm really not pleased with the stockers but really don't have the desire to rip them apart. Plus I see that as a several day project and driving around with a Maglight doesn't sound too safe.

I have tried Silverstars in the past and they helped a little but did not last more than a year or two. I won't use the HID bulbs in the stock housing as they blind other people and I think there is as special spot in Hell for the arseholes that do this.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 10:01 PM
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The housings OP pictured are chinese junk that use H1 and H3 bulbs. Stick with the H13, you'll be glad you did.
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 10:06 PM
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Old 03-11-2012, 11:01 PM
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Hmmm. I've been pretty pleased with the stock headlights. Wipers work pretty well too.

What exactly is the problem with the stock headlights? You can't see? Is it maybe an old guy thing? Cause I'm getting there too. Am I going to need to upgrade my headlights too?
 
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Old 03-11-2012, 11:30 PM
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Originally Posted by wittom
Hmmm. I've been pretty pleased with the stock headlights. Wipers work pretty well too.

What exactly is the problem with the stock headlights? You can't see? Is it maybe an old guy thing? Cause I'm getting there too. Am I going to need to upgrade my headlights too?
For me they are not as bright and don't provide the coverage as my 05 did. Of course I had added the stronger bulbs in the fog lights and done the Bambi mod so my fog lights helped a lot more. I know for a fact I was able to see quite a bit further down the road before and further into the ditches with my last truck. I drive rural roads quite a bit and being able to see a little bit further and wider helps see the critters that tend to run out in front of me.
 
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Old 03-12-2012, 08:09 AM
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Originally Posted by nards444
Why ford cant put nice headlights and wipers on a truck is beyond me either way. If im going to spend money I am looking at HID. I dont want conversion kits of the original housing or just HID light bulbs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Slim-8K-HID-...67cbe8&vxp=mtr

I have found something like this which has the ballast but only says low beam. SO what are you using for your high beam? AM I confusing the HID concept here?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/09-F150-LED-...60234764101021

now this one says high beam??
I started down the same path as you, used Silverstars for 3 - 4 years on my previous truck until I replaced the 4th bulb and said enough. When I put in brand new OEM's, learned that the originals are always better than used ones, especially after several years. For the new truck, I put in Philips Extremes, but I did not find them to be the step up I was hoping. Better yes, but not good enough. The only way to get there like you are wishing for are HID's. But before using HID's, you need to consider the whole system, any one part of it can make the whole thing junk: the ballast, the bulb, the projector and outside housing lens.

And make sure you stay w/ those 8000K light outputs j/k. If you want maximum output, get 4300K lights. You can get all kinds of direct replacement heads, some are better than others but all that I've seen are made in China. Some are lows only, rest have both; some highs will HID's, some will be standard. In addition, the bulbs and ballasts they use, most of them are bottom of the barrel chinese junk. You will in most cases have more problems with them than the Silverstars I've dealt w/ previously. In alot of cases, you will actually lose out on your light output. Upgrade to a better bulb/ballast and search for a projector housings that do not scatter much and it might be doable.

You say you don't want retrofitted headlights. What is different about those than the eBay replacements? In my mind they are both mods, just one is only about 10x better than the other. I put straight DDM HID's in my fogs thinking I would turn them on w/ no oncoming traffic and mainly when heading down the back roads. That lasted less than 6 months. The light scatter made viewing down the road worse.

You seriously need to re-consider on retrofitting your headlights if you want the best light availability for all conditions. If you use your own headlights, you can buy a kit for $270. I bought mine for $230 on a group buy, cheaper than the heads you are looking at on eBay. The hard part is getting the lens apart, but if you stick with a MH1 projector kit, and do the basic mod, you could have your lights back together in one day.

For one day of work, you will be smiling from ear to ear. I bought a set of used '09 headlights off this forum to do my retrofit. My originals are still sitting in my garage, was hanging on to them until after a year to make sure my retrofit was holding up. I'm not quit there yet, but I can let my very slightly used heads go for a very reasonable price if interested.

Basically, it sounds like you are at a point alot of us were, either blind somebody else or get a decent retrofit kit. Nothing in between worked.
 


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