projector headlights
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2010
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Do you already have projector style housings? If you only have the standard housings, please do everyone driving towards you a favor and skip the HID lights. They'll be bright enough for you, but the pattern will end up blinding everyone in front and behind you. If they make a projector style housing, then you might be able to do this. Laws vary state to state but in some places it is illegal to do a HID upgrade to a projector housing that doesn't have auto leveling equipment with it. Just FYI.
If you do a conversion, don't go with a cheap ballast. DO use a wiring harness and an automotive relay.
If you do a conversion, don't go with a cheap ballast. DO use a wiring harness and an automotive relay.
Meaner than Ymeski
Joined: Oct 2009
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my 02 f150 had the 2 peice headlight ..turn signals... replaced them with the one peice projectors with halos and leds... and they are more than bright enough for anything without the HIDs.. theres a pain in the **** to get adjusted but after that ... they light up the whole road top to bottom left to right .... very very well... my 08 has the same style... but they suck
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Joined: Sep 2010
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FX4 -
If you look at the headlight and you can see the reflector and where the bulb comes through it, it is a regular headlamp. If you cannot see either, but what appears to be a convex lens, then you have a projector type headlamp. A projector headlamp will have a very defined cutoff for the light pattern where a regular headlamp will be more diffuse cutoff. Even if you do have a projector type headlamp, it may not have the auto leveling hardware because it was designed for use with a halogen bulb, not a High Intensity Discharge bulb. The wiring harnesses in the halogen fixtures are generally designed to handle no more than 10 Amps total. A set of HID ballasts can actually take up to 7 Amps each. This overloads the circuit, but since the fuse is a slow blow type, you don't actually blow the fuse. What you can end up doing is frying your wiring harness. Go ahead and ask me how I know about that one
. I'm lucky it didn't do any damage to my ECU.
EDITED to correct my brainfart... convex not concave.
If you look at the headlight and you can see the reflector and where the bulb comes through it, it is a regular headlamp. If you cannot see either, but what appears to be a convex lens, then you have a projector type headlamp. A projector headlamp will have a very defined cutoff for the light pattern where a regular headlamp will be more diffuse cutoff. Even if you do have a projector type headlamp, it may not have the auto leveling hardware because it was designed for use with a halogen bulb, not a High Intensity Discharge bulb. The wiring harnesses in the halogen fixtures are generally designed to handle no more than 10 Amps total. A set of HID ballasts can actually take up to 7 Amps each. This overloads the circuit, but since the fuse is a slow blow type, you don't actually blow the fuse. What you can end up doing is frying your wiring harness. Go ahead and ask me how I know about that one
. I'm lucky it didn't do any damage to my ECU.EDITED to correct my brainfart... convex not concave.
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Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 240
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From: Archer, IA (Northwest IA)
FX4 -
If you look at the headlight and you can see the reflector and where the bulb comes through it, it is a regular headlamp. If you cannot see either, but what appears to be a convex lens, then you have a projector type headlamp. A projector headlamp will have a very defined cutoff for the light pattern where a regular headlamp will be more diffuse cutoff. Even if you do have a projector type headlamp, it may not have the auto leveling hardware because it was designed for use with a halogen bulb, not a High Intensity Discharge bulb. The wiring harnesses in the halogen fixtures are generally designed to handle no more than 10 Amps total. A set of HID ballasts can actually take up to 7 Amps each. This overloads the circuit, but since the fuse is a slow blow type, you don't actually blow the fuse. What you can end up doing is frying your wiring harness. Go ahead and ask me how I know about that one. I'm lucky it didn't do any damage to my ECU.
EDITED to correct my brainfart... convex not concave.
If you look at the headlight and you can see the reflector and where the bulb comes through it, it is a regular headlamp. If you cannot see either, but what appears to be a convex lens, then you have a projector type headlamp. A projector headlamp will have a very defined cutoff for the light pattern where a regular headlamp will be more diffuse cutoff. Even if you do have a projector type headlamp, it may not have the auto leveling hardware because it was designed for use with a halogen bulb, not a High Intensity Discharge bulb. The wiring harnesses in the halogen fixtures are generally designed to handle no more than 10 Amps total. A set of HID ballasts can actually take up to 7 Amps each. This overloads the circuit, but since the fuse is a slow blow type, you don't actually blow the fuse. What you can end up doing is frying your wiring harness. Go ahead and ask me how I know about that one
. I'm lucky it didn't do any damage to my ECU.EDITED to correct my brainfart... convex not concave.
so is there a way to prevent that from happening??
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2010
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Use a wiring harness and an automotive relay. The relay is just a switch with a 12v trigger. You have it tapped into the headlamp power wire (which would be otherwise not hooked up on your HID conversion). When there is power on the headlight wire, the relay will pass power directly from the battery to the ballast and from the ballast directly to the frame (ground). You just make your wiring harness out of 10 awg wires and all is good (it'll handle 35 - 40 amps, which is what the whole circuit can get up to and it's way better than the 14-16 awg). It's pretty simple to setup if you take the time to diagram out your circuit before you start.