Greetings. With the money I saved from doing my lower ball joints and outer tie rod ends, I thought it was time for a nice upgrade. I've been looking to upgrade my headlights. Originally I was going to purchase OEM Harley Davidson headlights and install projectors on them. The set up would have consisted of FX-R 2.5 projectors, Apollo shrouds and Morimoto 35W bulbs and ballasts. The overall upgrade would have cost around $1,000. Definitely a pricey upgrade but it would have been a top notch upgrade. Then I came across these headlights. They look very different from many of the aftermarket headlights I have seen in the past. They have 10 LEDs per side, with an Audi-like design to them. They also have LED halo rings, which I never really cared much for. There are two chrome accents to give dimension to the blacked out background. Overall from what I seen they looked really cool. But pictures only play a small role as you have to experience something to truly know whether or not you can recommend it or not. First of all, the fit and finish is poor compared to the stock OEM headlights. Also, there is a buldge where the main low beam projectors are, therefore I was not able to use my Lamin-X headlight film. Second, the electrical connections are poorly made. I had to improvise with weather-proof electrical tape on several of the connectors. This wasn't that big of a deal but I would expect a higher build quality. Finally, these lights are not street legal. They do not have a lighted side marker lamp. They do have amber reflectors, but that is all. I will be installing another side marker lamp somewhere else in the future. This is unfortunate as I have 9W Osram LEDs for my side marker lights and I would have preferred to keep them. Here are the lights. From the first time I saw them I thought they look really cool. The only other aftermarket headlight I would purchase would be the "Dragoneye" headlights which are no longer in production. The first thing I did was replace the original standard 100W H1 bulb with a Piaa Extreme White Plus bulb, also 100W. These bulbs give a slight blue tint to the light output but otherwise it is a nice, bright white. They are expensive at $50/piece but I don't go cheap on things like this. Eventually I will be upgrading to a Morimoto bulb and ballast HID system. At the back of the headlight assembly you will notice a spaghetti plate of wiring. The upper LEDs have their own resistor and wiring assembly, as does the LED halos. While this made the wiring a great big mess, I did like how they were made separate as I had no intention of wiring up the LED halos. I had to extend the wiring on the upper LEDs to reach my side marker wiring. That is where I decided to splice into. Originally I wanted to splice into the fog lights but I decided to just splice into the side markers, since this upgrade doesn't utilize the side marker bulbs. Here is the new beside the old. To remove the old headlight assembly, just take a ratchet and remove the three 10mm bolts that hold it in place. It may require some wiggling to remove it. You also have to remove the top Christmas tree fastener and push aside the shroud to get to the two 10mm bolts on the inner part of the headlight. Here is a close up of the driver-side headlight installed. Be sure to use weather-proof electrical tape over any connections! Not all electrical tape is the same, so get the outdoor rated stuff! Overall the fitment was quite poor but I can't complain because seeing that these were made in China I can't have very high expectations regarding their quality. It seems to blend in with the rest of the truck all right, although at first I was a little bit unimpressed. Sometimes I look at it and it looks way too "import" or "rice" to me. Here is the passenger-side installed. Overall the upgrade leaves me undecided on whether or not I can recommend it. My truck definitely looks different, and the light output is much better. When I upgrade to a full HID system it will make these even better. But regarding looks, fit, finish and function I would say it's a draw.
$1000?? you can get a full retrofit kit for 3-400. use factory lights, paint them yourself. including tools if you don't already have them it would still be under 600 I have everything i need including 2 sets of headlights sitting around in case i were to mess up. i plan on ordering the kit and doing it myself. i've never done it so it'll be a learning experience for sure. i've never been a fan of the "plug and play" projectors. i've had friends who've had them and even with hid's thrown in them which you aren't supposed to to according to the maker the light output just isn't all that great compared to a standard halogen housing. this is what i plan on going with when i do my retro Bi-xenon FX-R Stage III Kit - Complete Retrofit Kits from The Retrofit Source Inc
Wow, thanks for the link. Those prices are far better than the prices I was quoted from my local supplier. I will eventually upgrade these lights to HIDs. I prefer specific brands such as Phillips, Hella and Morimoto over these cheap ass garbage brands you see all over the Internet.
Here are couple of night time shots. I couldn't take them on center since my Sony camera doesn't do so well with night shots.
They do look good. You should look into getting some stealth bulbs to replace the little orange bulbs, would look much better...no more egg yolk, but still bonk orange. They gave our forum a discount code a while back but I'm not sure it's still active, you could try searching for it if interested. I absolutely love mine. Sent from my Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2
I recommend undertaking your own retrofit. I did mine and sure it was a learning experience and took me a while to complete but hot dang I'm proud I did it. The FX-R is a superb choice for a projector and The Retrofit Source online: headlight upgrades for all applications has everything you need to do it right. I recommend reading their how to articles they have on there they arent F150 specific but do contain a lot of information to do a proper retrofit.
I'm more than comfortable doing a retrofit on my own, and seeing these links to lower pricing keeps me undecided on whether or not to proceed with one. My factory headlights were in poor condition, so I was planning on purchasing original Harley Davidson lights and retrofitting those. When I seen these I thought I'd pull the trigger since the Photoshop pic looked pretty cool. When I look at it on a daily basis they still seem a little bit too "import" for me. The light output is decent for a cheap projector. Surprisingly the upper cut-off is good but the width of the light is quite limited. I still may go ahead with a full retrofit later down the road.
when i first saw this headlamp, i said "where the hell do I know that from?" and then I was driving around and saw this...
