bigred90gt

So, I've been mulling over the idea installing a projector retrofit kit into my headlights, or just buying a set of OEM HIDs.

I have been looking at the OEMs on eBay, and you can get them with minor blemishes for not too expensive. Most are either completely decontented, or only have bulbs. This leads me to my questions:

1 - I want them to be as bright as I can get. I believe, from previous research, the lenses are fogged (forget the actual term), as opposed to completely clear like aftermarket. From what I have read, this effects the sharpness of the cutoff and the the "color change" effect at the cutoff. I am thinking to get the most out of them, I should get 55w bulbs and 50w ballasts. What bulbs do the oem units take, and will there be a real, measure able difference in brightness between 35w bulbs and 55w bulbs with the relevant ballasts for both?

2 - I want the whitest light I can get without them being blue. Some say 5000k is white, some say it is a bit blue. I realize that 4300k is what is used from the factory. Can people with HIDs please post some pictures? I'd like to see 4300k face on in the dark, without the fog lights on, as well as view from the drivers seat without the fog lights. I'd also like to see 5000k in the same views. I know this may be a stretch, and it may seem like a lot to ask, but my searches on google have yielded nothing useful, and nothing specifically relevant to the F150.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

byte

my factory HID lenses are clear... search HID colors and many showing the difference from 8000 to 4000k

Toddman38

iTrader: (5)

A retrofit sounds like what your wanting, FX-R stage 4 kit with CBI bulbs would be best... IMHO... 4300k is the whitest bulb, 5000k and up start getting a bluish tint as well as lost lumen output! Theres a few members who do Retros, Bilinvic, TuxedoBlack, and Yuke that I know of! Good luck on your choice...

Theres of course no long wait if you go with new or slightly blemished oem option, and they can be retrofitted and customized as well! The oem retro d Offers the cleanest look I think!j


If you look very closely, they're actually Fresnel (actually Blurred, somewhat Foggy lens)! Not clear, you lose some light output over having a true clear lens! Which the 13 & up oem hids do not!

bigred90gt

All of the pictures I have seen are someone shining their lights on a garage door or wall from 10-20 feet away. That is not useful to me, hence the reason I asked for some pics. I do thank you for the insightful post though.

bigred90gt

Well, therein lies the problem. I don't particularly want to mess with doing a retrofit, and I don't want to wait 6 months for a set of lights to show up. I might be interested in changing out the lens on a set of oem with a true clear lens, but part of my not wanting to do a retrofit is not wanting to have to bust open the lights and mess with any of it.

Thanks for the info. That's why I would like to see the pictures. From everything I have seen, 4300k looks like a really intense bright halogen bulb color, not quite white, but not what I would call yellow. More like an off white I guess. 5000k seems to be whiter, but based on the reading I have done, actual color of the bulbs can vary depending on the manufacturer, and even bulbs from the same manufacturer and supposedly the same temp can be different.

lewis26

iTrader: (1)

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hid+color+temp+chart

Azuri

As others have said expect several months wait if you want a quality pair of retrofit lights made unless you feel you can or want to tackle it yourself. OEM HIDs I've been told are a huge upgrade to OEM halogens but the retro's are the only way you will get the cleanest, crispest and brightest output.

Here's an indication and hopefully this video I made will show you what you can expect. This is with FX-R 3.0 projectors, 50W ballasts and CBI 5K bulbs. Note that I have aimed the lights considerably higher since making this video since I was still dialing them in and didn't want to burn the retinas out of incoming traffic so wasn't to sure where the sweet spot was yet.

bigred90gt

Again, very insightful post, which I appreciate. I figured I conveyed the point in my first post that I have already searched for, and seen the photos posted, which incidentally include those. And I also thought I made it pretty clear that it was not of much use, but thanks again for the effort.

bigred90gt

Thanks for the video. It was more what I was looking for. And helps a lot.

beedish

Just finished my 13 OEM HID retro with EvoX-R projectors and 3Five 4300k bulbs and 3Five Ballasts.

The headlights I bought were decontented, so I can't personally comment on the change from stock to the EvoX-R. Got an awesome deal on the bay and couldn't resist attempting an EvoX-R upgrade.

I can however, vouch for how incredibly easy it was to switch out the factory projectors to the EvoX-R's. They're as plug-n-play as it gets. The hardest part for me was pulling the headlights apart (first timer!).

I've seen pictures of the light output of the factory low's and high's, and they are definitely an upgrade over stock halogen. Compared to what I'm seeing from the EvoX-R, the width of the light beam is wider than stock projectors and definitely doesn't have the hotspots and poor cut-off that the factory projectors had. The high-beams from the EvoX-R's are also RIDICULOUS! It's like traveling in a tunnel of light. I actually felt bad for the possum that got in my sights last night! Poor bastard had to have been seeing spots for hours!

I went with 4300k 3Five bulbs, and they are definitely white with a beautiful blue/violet/every other color in the world flicker at the cutoff. I wanted as many lumens as possible, which is why I went with the 4300k in lieu of the 5000k. To me, the 4300k are super white with a SLIGHT SLIGHT SLIGHT hint of blue. But everyones eyes are different.

If you don't want to wait months on end for a retro, and you can get a good deal on some 13 HID's, I definitely think it's worth the money to try it yourself. TheRetrofitSource has a ton of videos that can help.

Once our South Texas freeze lets up, I'll grab some pictures of the cutoff's at night and the high beams. I'll also get some looking down a road (without a wall shot like you requested). My headlights are currently covered in ice, so needless to say my attempts tonight failed miserably...

These are the parts I got to retrofit my 13 OEM decontented HID's:

EvoX-R Projectors
Morimoto 3Five 4300k D2S bulbs
Morimoto 3Five Ballasts
H13/9008 Relay (I have a '12 w/o factory HID harnesses)
Butyl Glue
4"x5" Lexan pieces (cover existing factory ballast location - sealed with butyl glue and secured with screws in factory location)
Zip ties to secure relay and ballast harness wires.

In addition to screwing the ballasts down, I used velcro as a fail-safe to keep them from vibrating too badly in case my screwed down locations weren't as sturdy during driving.

Also, the factory projectors have fresnel lenses, as previously mentioned. They appear clear, until you actually see a clear lens like the EvoX-R has.