Updated my F150 headlights and fog lights to LED!

[BlkGS]

my 2016 F150 had VERY sh*ty lights. Switching from incandescent to LED running lights made all the difference in the word.

Yours looks cool though.

That's funny. My 2015 f150 platinum had the best lights I've ever seen. They blew away all the benzes and audis and such I've driven. Seems like automakers really put 0 effort into the base level headlights. Drove an Acadiana a rental with base headlights and the thing was dangerous those lights were so bad.

 

[Julian]

Love the headlights in my Audi Q7....super bright, great cutoff, and adaptive height. They don't turn, which makes them simpler, but the car does have turning lights (separate ones), so that when you are turning around a corner - it lights the turning lights which is really nice. And yes...they are cool when you turn the car on and it auto levels....

 

[anmut]

Weirdly enough, I noticed my '19 Ram Limited will turn on the "turning side" fog light when the wheel starts a pivot in that direction or the signal is turned on. Also has pivoting headlights, which is such a great feature it should be standard.

 

[Betik]

That's funny. My 2015 f150 platinum had the best lights I've ever seen. They blew away all the benzes and audis and such I've driven. Seems like automakers really put 0 effort into the base level headlights. Drove an Acadiana a rental with base headlights and the thing was dangerous those lights were so bad.

I believe you, my 2016 F150 is an XL , so as base as it gets and it shows..... But boy can it tow!!!!

 

[haknslash]

Today was the first morning I got to drive into work in the dark and they did great on the interstate. SUPER W I D E!

Here’s some daytime pics as I just realized I didn’t post any. Disregard the filthy truck

 

[white2kstang]

Might need to order a set for my step daughter's 2014. They really do make a huge difference on those country back roads.

 

[ripler]

Hazards of driving in the snow with LED headlights, I drove this morning on the highway for about an hour in light snow. The LEDs don't produce enough heat to melt the snow, if it was dark I wouldn't the lights would be useless.



After I wiped them.

 

[djetok]

Today was the first morning I got to drive into work in the dark and they did great on the interstate. SUPER W I D E!

Here’s some daytime pics as I just realized I didn’t post any. Disregard the filthy truck

View attachment 138383View attachment 138384View attachment 138385

So I take it the morimotos are worth it? I had a hard time spending 1500 on them. They look to be a way better job on light distribution than swapping in led bulbs.

 

[white2kstang]

I do not regret the spend on them at all for our 2017. Though I did get them on sale. I would buy them again. The Retrofit Source was great as well. Much better than any bulb replacement by a longshot.

 

[djetok]

I do not regret the spend on them at all for our 2017. Though I did get them on sale. I would buy them again. The Retrofit Source was great as well. Much better than any bulb replacement by a longshot.

Thanks it gives me another option. I always buy plat or king ranch because of the factory leds.

 

[haknslash]

Yes I love them!

 

[2kwik4u]

@haknslash I might have missed it, and a quick look back didn't find it.

Did you replace the entire housings, retrofit the existing housing with new doo-dad-ery, or did you just swap in new bulbs.

Reason I'm asking is I've been looking closer at the beam pattern on my trucks headlights, and there are a couple of dark spots. I'm 99" convinced this is because of the "painted end" on the halogen bulbs, and them being installed in a project housing. I have the same housings as the Denali trim (that comes with HID's), but only have halogen bulbs in them. Do you think it's fair to say that the housings would benefit from just moving to an HID bulb? I know you're not supposed to put HID's into reflector lenses, but I don't think that's the case here.

I'm concurrently searching the Sierra/Silverado forums for the same answer, but honestly trust the advice out of this board more than just about anywhere else on the internet!

 

[haknslash]

I swapped entire housing. I had HID factory projector headlights and switched to LED headlights.

Your halogen projectors won’t be the same as the Denali projects as hose are made specifically for HID. The light is emitted entirely different for the two types of bulbs Therefore the optics for the refector bowl will be different. It’s not just the bulb seat . Hard to say what is causing your dark spot. Could be all sorts of things from reflector shape inside the projector bowl, bulb end or just the spacing isn’t quite right. Typically you‘ll have hot and dark spots with halogen because the optics aren’t as well engineered as say HID or LED.

You could probably find detailed info about which light company (Kioto, osram, Hella etc) makes the Denali projector on the hidplaent forums. I don’t go on there as often as I used to man years ago but it is the goto resource website for anything lighting related IMHO.

 

[Seadeals]

They look very nice. I am glad you like the upgrade. I switched the fog light bulbs to LED. I like the black-trimmed housings on my FX2 but have still been waiting for one of the original bulbs to go out (10 years old!) just to give me a reason to spend the money; but they will not die-LOL.

 

[suke]

Got my lights for Christmas today. I will say all the vids I watched missed some very key steps. The biggest was dealing with the fender flares. Wasn't too bad, and of course one of the clips breaks. I'm thinking no biggie I have a crap ton of fender type push clips.....nope not only location specific but Ford specific. Ugh! So, guess I'll be calling the dealer tomorrow and see if they have any in stock. Also the directions for running the wires was crap. There's a fuse tap but no real mention of how you should run the wires. So I notched out a little hole in the fuse panel, and ran it through the fender and to the front.

Here's where I ran the wiring and zip tied it up to the washer reservoir.

In the left of the screen you can see a little red wire, that's the DRL wire. I notched it out right there to run the wiring.

Then took off the shroud up here and ran the wire underneath, and secured it with flex tape. That stuff is hella sticky and won't ever come off.

50/50

Lows and fogs

Low beams


High Beams

DRL


No outside shots and no further angles. It was 25* out so I was in the garage nice and toasty. Also no night shots as you can see in the last pic the fender flare isn't secured yet. Need to track down that clip tomorrow.

 

[suke]

All done. Ran to the dealer this morning and snagged a clip. Man they don't call it the stealership for nothing. Nearly $3 for one of those clips.

 

[Betik]

All done. Ran to the dealer this morning and snagged a clip. Man they don't call it the stealership for nothing. Nearly $3 for one of those clips.View attachment 139244

I disagree. The term “ steal” implies doing something without your action being noticed. The dealer’s action is more like burglary. Or maybe a robbery. Maybe @Ronnie can clarify the legal term here, but “steal” is sugarcoating.

 

[ChrisM]

Hazards of driving in the snow with LED headlights, I drove this morning on the highway for about an hour in light snow. The LEDs don't produce enough heat to melt the snow, if it was dark I wouldn't the lights would be useless.

View attachment 138792

After I wiped them.

View attachment 138793

Those are factory? I don't get it, I upgraded 2010 my Wrangler JK to after market LED about 8 years ago with the original Evolution from JW Speaker. What they offer now that they didn't back then is "SmartHeat" to prevent this. Way to go Jeep..!! My current aftermarket lights are not an issue as I only have 34,000 on my JK, and we have maybe 1 snow day a year.

Video: Learn about the SmartHeat Series® – Heated LED Lights

 

[suke]

Those are factory? I don't get it, I upgraded 2010 my Wrangler JK to after market LED about 8 years ago with the original Evolution from JW Speaker. What they offer now that they didn't back then is "SmartHeat" to prevent this. Way to go Jeep..!! My current aftermarket lights are not an issue as I only have 34,000 on my JK, and we have maybe 1 snow day a year.

Video: Learn about the SmartHeat Series® – Heated LED Lights

View attachment 139253

View attachment 139254

I put cheap chinese JW Speaker knock offs on my JK and they've been fantastic.

 

[suke]

Drove it tonight and the lights were basically pointing at the ground. LOL! When I got home I adjusted them up basically up to the max level before they were at the correct height. Much better than stock.