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-   -   Halogen to OEM LED Headlights the Forscan Way (https://www.f150forum.com/f118/halogen-oem-led-headlights-forscan-way-394074/)

Ryan B 09-11-2017 10:21 PM

Halogen to OEM LED Headlights the Forscan Way
 
How to swap from Halogen to OEM LED headlights and maintain the stock functionality.

This thread is made possible by contributions from many forum members: @Livnitup, @Firerunner, @starliner57, @jmeo, @kloubser, @Fivepointocd, @doctorwho, @DyLivn

Ford Part Numbers for 2015-2017 trucks:
GL3Z-13008-E (Black Housing, Passenger Side)
GL3Z-13008-F (Black Housing, Driver Side)
FL3Z-13C170-A (Ballast, 2 Required)
W715133-S900 (Ballast Screws, 6 Required)

Ford Part Numbers for 2018+ trucks:
JL3Z-13008-AJ (Black Housing, Left Driver Side)
JL3Z-13008-AK (Black Housing, Right Passenger Side)
JL3Z-13008-AH (Chrome Housing, Left Driver Side)
JL3Z-13008-AG (Chrome Housing, Right Passenger Side)
FL3Z-13C170-A (Ballast, 2 Required)
W715133-S900 (Ballast Screws, 6 Required)

On all 2015+ F150's each OEM LED headlight needs 7 wires to function correctly; Low Beam, High Beam, DRL, Turn, Running Light, Turn Outage, Ground. A truck with Halogen lights will have 5 of those 7 wires already at each headlight. The DRL and Turn Outage wires must be added to connector 2280F at the BCM and then run to each headlight for factory operation.

Adding the missing wires to the BCM:
I made a harness of 4 wires wrapped in Tesa Tape and terminated with the BCM terminals on one end. The two wires for the passenger side should be at least 7.5ft long and the wires for the driver side should be at least 15ft long. It's important to use 4 different colors of wire to keep track of what goes where. For C2280F, you need to use either DU2Z-14474-AA pigtails or TE Connectivity terminals P/n: 1924955-3 .

Pulling wires through the firewall:
After the harness was made, I used a coat hanger that was sharpened on one end to pull the wire through the grommet on the passenger side of the firewall. I went from the engine compartment into the cab through the big grommet, this is the hard way. The easier way is to pull down the fender liner on the passenger side and use one of the smaller, single wall grommets. This grommet can be seen best in doctorwho's write up

Re-pinning the 2280F Connector is tricky because Ford didn't leave much slack to work with. The best way I found to get room to work was to remove the trim piece under the blower motor, its held on by two push pins by the glove box hinge. The 2280F connector itself is made up of two terminal blocks inside a housing. One block has pins 1-20 and the second is 21-40. There is a little tab on either side of the housing you depress to slide the terminal blocks out. Jmeo took good pictures of what needs to be done at the BCM.

Rear Daytime Running Lights (only applies to 2018+): On 2018 Halogen trucks, Ford swapped to a four bulb taillight setup. To power the extra two bulbs, they used pins 36 and 40 on the BCM. To have the LED DRLs function correctly, you will need to de-pin the existing wires that are in pins 36 and 40 on the C2280F connector and insert the wires from your harness. If you are retaining your halogen taillights, you will need to make inline adapters for the taillights. If you don't, only two of the four taillights will illuminate. To make an in-line adapter you need Molex 33482-3628 and Molex 33472-0668. Insert wires in pins 1 and 5 on the female connector and tie them together, then connect them to pin 1 on the male connector. Pins 2,4 and 6 will be straight through from the female to male connector. Insert these inline adapters between each tail light and the factory wiring harness. If you have LED taillights you can disregard this part.

Wires that need to be added (Colors are mine):
Left Turn Outage - Pin #6 (White)
Left DRL - Pin #40 (Black)
Right Turn Outage - Pin #17 (Red)
Right DRL Pin - #36 (Yellow)

Engine Bay:
Remove the headlights, then start to run the new harness in the engine bay. I put the Tesa Tape wrapped harness in plastic wire loom and ran it under the fuse box and around the battery following the other harness and pulled it out behind the Right Head light. Then I took the two wires for the Left headlight and ran them across the top of the grille to the other side. I hid them under the plastic radiator trim cover making sure to keep the wires away from the shutters.

Wiring the Headlights:
You have a few options here. I fully committed to this, so I cut off all four of the halogen connectors and used Molex 33472-1601 Female connectors and crimped new terminals Molex 330122003 onto the existing truck wires. If you don't have a crimp tool, you can use Motorcraft WPT-1279 pigtails and butt connectors.

Or you can make a PnP harness using the below parts:
Qty 2: Molex 33472-1601 (Female Connector)
Qty 14: Molex 330122003 (Female Terminals for 33472-1601)
Qty 2: Molex 33481-0401 (Male Connector for the LO and HI Beam lamps)
Qty 6: Molex 330000003 (Terminals for 33481-0401)You'll also need either these:Qty 2: 3156/3157 Bulb Adapters (These mate with the turn signal and parking light connector).
Qty 2: Standard Motor Products S-874 This is the intermediary piece between the bulb adapters and the turn/park connector. You can reuse the ones off your halogen lights or get these.
The only tricky part with this setup will be wiring the 3156/3157 bulb adapters. They are not standard in terms of which contacts go to which wire color. If your parking lights and turn signals do not work after you install it, you'd need to remove the plug from the socket, flip it over, and then re-insert it.Or these:
Qty 2: 3157 Connectors from The Retrofit Source.

For 2015-2017 Trucks the wiring is as follows:
The Right headlight connector gets pinned as follows:
Pin 1 - Yellow/Violet
Pin 2 - Red
Pin 3 - Blue/Gray
Pin 4 - Yellow
Pin 5 - Blue/Green
Pin 6 - Violet/Orange
Pin 7 - Black/Gray

The Left Headlight is not the same, but similar:
Pin 1 - Blue/Green
Pin 2 - White
Pin 3 - Blue/Gray
Pin 4 - Black
Pin 5 - Brown/Blue
Pin 6 - Gray/Brown
Pin 7 - Black/Yellow

For 2018+ Trucks the wiring is as follows:
The Right headlight connector gets pinned as follows:
Pin 1 - Black/Gray
Pin 2 - Yellow/Violet
Pin 3 - Yellow
Pin 4 - Blue/Gray
Pin 5 - Not Used
Pin 6 - Blue/Green
Pin 7 - Violet/Orange
Pin 8 - Red

The Left Headlight is not the same, but similar:
Pin 1 - Black/Yellow
Pin 2 - Blue/Green
Pin 3 - Black
Pin 4 - Blue/Gray
Pin 5 - Not Used
Pin 6 - Brown/Blue
Pin 7 - Gray/Brown
Pin 8 - White

Forscan:
The final piece to the puzzle is changing the BCM programming to work with the LEDs.
726-24-01 xxxx xxFF xFxx
726-26-02 xxxx xxx0 xxxx
726-27-01 x0x1 xxxx xxxx
726-27-01 x0xx xxxx xxxx (Use this if you did not add wires to the BCM)
726-29-01 xxxx xxxx x0xx
726-29-02 x0xx xxxx xxxx (2018 Trucks Only)
726-45-01 xxxx 7Fxx xxxx
726-50-01 10xx
726-50-01 08xx (Use this if you did not add wires to the BCM)

Installation Video:
Airborne Ape has put together an extremely through video on building a harness and the entire installation process. I highly recommend watching it start to finish to get a complete picture of what this swap involves.

Soviet1975 Made a good video describing the process of completing the swap. He explains how to complete the hardest part of the swap, pulling the wiring loom through the firewall and pinning the C2280F connector.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wF8iEZKcMM


Results:
I have been running this setup on my 2016 XLT since September 2017 and have had no issues. The DRLs function normally, the Auto setting still works and I haven't had either C-light go out.

I have also assisted with swaps on 2018 XLTs and Lariats and can say that the lights on those trucks are operating as if they came from factory with LEDs too.

Some pictures that I did remember to take:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...89954e3402.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...ca691c071e.jpg

Finally, I do offer premade PnP harnesses for all headlight swaps, send me a PM for more info.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...d8211566ce.jpg

Firerunner 09-11-2017 10:36 PM

Awesome job Ryan! I don't see anything wrong with your write-up.... you have solved the issues MANY people have had with these headlights.

Hats off to you... now I need to buy some lights & complete this mod :thumbup:

Truckin 09-11-2017 11:32 PM

Awesome good to know, thanks!

FordDrivingVolsFan 09-12-2017 12:01 AM

I appreciate the effort, and really wish I could follow this, as I would love to complete this mod. But this might as well be written in Spanish. (That's on my lack of understanding, and has nothing to do with your write up).

GM150 09-12-2017 05:55 AM


Originally Posted by Ryan B (Post 5466034)
I'd like to add my contribution to the forum, How to swap from halogen to the OEM LED headlights and maintain the stock functionality. After working with @Livnitup and @Firerunner to figure out adding BLIS to an XLT it occurred to me that running the factory LED Headlights should work too if the right configuration was set in the BCM. Write-ups aren't my thing, so if some would like to help me clean this rambling up into a direct how-to, PM me.

Each LED headlight needs 7 wires to function correctly; Low Beam, High Beam, DRL, Turn, Running Light, Turn Outage, Ground. A truck with Halogen lights will have 5 of those 7 wires already at each headlight. The DRL and Turn Outage wires must be added to connector 2280F at the BCM and then run to each headlight for factory operation.

BCM:
To start, I made a harness of 4 wires wrapped in Tesa Tape and terminated for the BCM connector. It's important to use 4 different colors of wire to keep track of what goes where. For C2280F, you need to use DU2Z-14474-AA terminals. After the harness was made, I used a coat hanger that was sharpened on one end to pull the wire through the grommet on the passenger side of the firewall.

Re-pinning the 2280F Connector is tricky because Ford didn't leave much slack to work with. The best way I found to get room to work was to remove the trim piece under the blower motor, its held on by two push pins by the glove box hinge. The 2280F connector itself is made up of two terminal blocks inside a housing. One block has pins 1-20 and the second is 21-40. There is a little tab on either side of the housing you depress to slide the terminal blocks out. Make sure you're pinning the right spot in the connector, de-pinning this connector looks almost impossible.

Wires you're adding: (Colors are mine)
Left Turn Outage - Pin #6 (White)
Left DRL - Pin #40 (Black)
Right Turn Outage - Pin #17 (Red)
Right DRL Pin - #36 (Yellow)

Engine Bay:
Remove the headlights, then start to run the new harness in the engine bay. I put the Tesa Tape wrapped harness in plastic wire loom and ran it under the fuse box and around the battery following the other harness and pulled it out behind the Right Head light. Then I took the two wires for the Left headlight and ran them across the top of the grille to the other side. I hid them under the plastic radiator trim cover making sure to keep the wires away from the shutters.

Wiring the Headlights: I fully committed to this, so I cut off all four of the halogen connectors and used Molex MX150 Female Connectors to mate with the plug on the Headlights. Once both connectors are pinned, re-install the headlights and clean up any wire ties or excess wire.

The Right headlight connector gets pinned as follows:
Pin 1 - Yellow/Violet
Pin 2 - Red
Pin 3 - Blue/Gray
Pin 4 - Yellow
Pin 5 - Blue/Green
Pin 6 - Violet/Orange
Pin 7 - Black/Gray

The Left Headlight is not the same, but similar:
Pin 1 - Blue/Green
Pin 2 - White
Pin 3 - Blue/Gray
Pin 4 - Black
Pin 5 - Brown/Blue
Pin 6 - Gray/Brown
Pin 7 - Black/Yellow

Forscan:
The final piece to the puzzle is changing the BCM programming to work with the LEDs.
726-24-01 xxxx xxFF xFxx*
726-26-02 xxxx xxx0 xxxx
726-27-01 x0x1 xxx1 01xx
726-29-01 xxxx xxxx x0xx
726-45-01 xxxx 11xx xxxx
726-50-01 10xx


*This is for a truck with BLIS, a Non-Blis truck will have a different 726-24-01 configuration.

Results:
I have been running this setup since Friday and have had no issues. DRL function normally, the Auto setting still works and I haven't had either C-light go out. I do have a DTC for "lost communication with seat module A" but I can live with that.

Some pictures that I did remember to take:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...89954e3402.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...93c3c5b2d7.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...ca691c071e.jpg

Any commercially available plug and play options?

Ryan B 09-12-2017 09:08 AM


Originally Posted by GM150 (Post 5466230)
Any commercially available plug and play options?



Unfortunately, no.


You could make up some adapters similar to what RR and TRS have and then try the Forscan programming and see what happens. You still wouldn't have DRLs but it might work. If your local to the NJ area, I'd be happy to lend a hand pulling the wires.

GM150 09-12-2017 09:18 AM

Too far away, but thanks
Out of my comfort zone.
If someone came up with a solution for regular DIYers I think it'll sell well.
Need some simple like change, plugs or wires and detailed instructions.
So I won't be attempting this. My halogens work, don't want to ruin a new truck.

Good work, you guys are phenomenal

cwcb08 09-12-2017 09:48 AM

thats awesome man :thumbsup: ,

someone who has stock leds or a harness should check their harness connector for a part number and maybe we can repin and use the terminals in the halogen plug instead of cutting them all off?

the link to the terminals you used is dead

MikeTHIS 09-12-2017 10:17 AM


Originally Posted by Ryan B (Post 5466034)
I'd like to add my contribution to the forum, How to swap from halogen to the OEM LED headlights and maintain the stock functionality. After working with @Livnitup and @Firerunner to figure out adding BLIS to an XLT it occurred to me that running the factory LED Headlights should work too if the right configuration was set in the BCM. Write-ups aren't my thing, so if some would like to help me clean this rambling up into a direct how-to, PM me.

Each LED headlight needs 7 wires to function correctly; Low Beam, High Beam, DRL, Turn, Running Light, Turn Outage, Ground. A truck with Halogen lights will have 5 of those 7 wires already at each headlight. The DRL and Turn Outage wires must be added to connector 2280F at the BCM and then run to each headlight for factory operation.

BCM:
To start, I made a harness of 4 wires wrapped in Tesa Tape and terminated for the BCM connector. It's important to use 4 different colors of wire to keep track of what goes where. For C2280F, you need to use DU2Z-14474-AA terminals. After the harness was made, I used a coat hanger that was sharpened on one end to pull the wire through the grommet on the passenger side of the firewall.

Re-pinning the 2280F Connector is tricky because Ford didn't leave much slack to work with. The best way I found to get room to work was to remove the trim piece under the blower motor, its held on by two push pins by the glove box hinge. The 2280F connector itself is made up of two terminal blocks inside a housing. One block has pins 1-20 and the second is 21-40. There is a little tab on either side of the housing you depress to slide the terminal blocks out. Make sure you're pinning the right spot in the connector, de-pinning this connector looks almost impossible.

Wires you're adding: (Colors are mine)
Left Turn Outage - Pin #6 (White)
Left DRL - Pin #40 (Black)
Right Turn Outage - Pin #17 (Red)
Right DRL Pin - #36 (Yellow)

Engine Bay:
Remove the headlights, then start to run the new harness in the engine bay. I put the Tesa Tape wrapped harness in plastic wire loom and ran it under the fuse box and around the battery following the other harness and pulled it out behind the Right Head light. Then I took the two wires for the Left headlight and ran them across the top of the grille to the other side. I hid them under the plastic radiator trim cover making sure to keep the wires away from the shutters.

Wiring the Headlights: I fully committed to this, so I cut off all four of the halogen connectors and used Molex MX150 Female Connectors to mate with the plug on the Headlights. Once both connectors are pinned, re-install the headlights and clean up any wire ties or excess wire.

The Right headlight connector gets pinned as follows:
Pin 1 - Yellow/Violet
Pin 2 - Red
Pin 3 - Blue/Gray
Pin 4 - Yellow
Pin 5 - Blue/Green
Pin 6 - Violet/Orange
Pin 7 - Black/Gray

The Left Headlight is not the same, but similar:
Pin 1 - Blue/Green
Pin 2 - White
Pin 3 - Blue/Gray
Pin 4 - Black
Pin 5 - Brown/Blue
Pin 6 - Gray/Brown
Pin 7 - Black/Yellow

Forscan:
The final piece to the puzzle is changing the BCM programming to work with the LEDs.
726-24-01 xxxx xxFF xFxx*
726-26-02 xxxx xxx0 xxxx
726-27-01 x0x1 xxx1 01xx
726-29-01 xxxx xxxx x0xx
726-45-01 xxxx 11xx xxxx
726-50-01 10xx


*This is for a truck with BLIS, a Non-Blis truck will have a different 726-24-01 configuration.

Results:
I have been running this setup since Friday and have had no issues. DRL function normally, the Auto setting still works and I haven't had either C-light go out. I do have a DTC for "lost communication with seat module A" but I can live with that.

Some pictures that I did remember to take:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...89954e3402.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...93c3c5b2d7.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...ca691c071e.jpg

Great job!

Knocked it out or the park with your write-up!

I've got Anzo's but if the output of the stock LED's outperforms them I'd consider switching to the SE LED's.

Ryan B 09-12-2017 10:26 AM


Originally Posted by cwcb08 (Post 5466392)
thats awesome man :thumbsup: ,

someone who has stock leds or a harness should check their harness connector for a part number and maybe we can repin and use the terminals in the halogen plug instead of cutting them all off?

the link to the terminals you used is dead



I updated the post with other places to get the connectors besides Ebay. The connectors are the same ones used for the LED tail lights so I doubt you would be able to reuse the pins from the halogen plugs. But if you could, that'd be awesome.


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