These two statements directly contradict each other. First, your against modding lights at all because its illegal, then your all for it if it's safe.. Based on your information alone which doesn't make a ton of sense, one would gather that it's outright stupid & illegal to convert to HID lighting in this particular vehicle - and possibly all vehicles.
They don't contradict each other at all.
It's still a fact that it's illegal in all 50 states (for on-road use, at least) to put HID bulbs in a halogen housing, or to purchase and use an aftermarket "retrofit" kit to try and make HID work with your vehicle that only came with halogen lights. This is the doman of ricers and people who are under the delusion that other people are so concerned about the color of their vehicle's headlights, but the blue "superwhite" halogen bulbs aren't good enough, and that they should spend hundreds of dollars to do whatever it takes to throw some HID lamps on their vehicle, regardless of how they actually function, and whether or not they put out enough light in front of the vehicle to see, and whether or not they blind other drivers.
What is NOT illegal is using FACTORY housings and assemblies for HID lamps, and sticking those on a vehicle that only has halogen lamps. This is why it's not illegal to swap factory halogen housings for factory HID housings. These lamps and their assemblies comply with lighting laws and their performance is much better than the aftermarket kits.
I also recognize that there ARE plenty of bright individuals out there who go to the trouble of converting to HID not because they care what other people think about their vehicle's headlights, but they just want real HID lamps on their vehicle. These people go to great lengths to make sure that the end result is MORE light on the road, and NO glare into the eyes of oncoming traffic. More often than not, such setups are BETTER than what the vehicle came with from the factory.
No one said that they did, simply that someone was smart enough (or cheap enough, pending how you look at it) to figure out a way to use 1 housing to work with multiple types of light sources. It really is simpler than you lead it on to be...
You ignored what I typed AFTER that. Sure, it's
possible to do (and probably with a poor result), but it would make no sense for Ford to do something like that, nor is there any evidence that this is the case. Were it so, it'd be a simple matter of sticking one bulb or the other in the lamp with the required adapter and it'd work. This clearly isn't the case, even just based on the sources of the light. You can stick two different types of bulbs with two different characteristics in the same lamp but you won't get the same resulting beam. They will both throw out light, sure, but it won't be well aimed, focused, intense light on the road where it is needed. This is why you don't stick HID bulbs in halogen housings, or use bulbs not designed for the housing.
Unfortunately, I can offer nothing to prove this other than word of my mouth (or type as it were) BUT I can say I am now certain the head light assembles from a hardware standpoint (Back black housing, clear front lens cover, glass focusing lens, metal mechanical cutoff assembly, back reflector, turn signal etc) are all the same from factory HID to non-HID setups.
So, you have no proof, but you're certain HOW? Based on looks? Part numbers? You're saying you can determine all the angles and curvatures are the exact same just by visual information alone? You should apply at NASA immediately.
This isn't proof of anything other than what people have known for a long time - that you can be certain of something that isn't true, especially without all or any the facts necessary to support it.
Here is where my personal factual information stops and theory begins - the reasoning seems simple enough to me, as I stated in my thinking - the source of the light shouldn't really matter more so than how the light is directed from its source. In the case of HID lamps in our application compared to non HID's the light is "thrown" out from the source in pretty much an omni pattern (from the perspective of looking directly into the light source as it would be installed. Some of that light travels forward, though most of it is "captured" by the reflector and directed to the lens where it is further fix focused to whatever specs Ford setup presenting the lighting pattern we all get regardless of lamp. I suspect this led to the design of the mechanical cutoff vs some other means of controlling low/hi or separate lamps all together.
"Personal factual information". That's a good one.
The source DOES matter. While, as I described in my previous post, it's certainly possible to put one bulb in another housing, the result won't be what you seem to imagine.
Going back to the assembly, I came to these conclusions with a friend of mine who owns a limited with factory HID. I took my actual housing apart to do "angel eyes" and LED strips along the outside edge (hope the glare gods don't kill me) - we observed that there were no differences between his assembly and mine. All markings, screw placements, attachment points etc were identical across models. True, there are additional pieces that come with a HID model but those are bolt on pieces, not intrinsic to the actual housing.
So because they look the same to you, and have everything placed the same so that both assemblies fit the same vehicle (exactly as they were designed to be for a vehicle that came with two different headlamp options), they are the same - and the HID model comes with additional pieces you personally determine are not intrinsic.
You can
believe whatever you want, that doesn't make it true.
Don't try to start arguments and attack me on the forum as if I'm somehow promoting physics and optics or vehicle lighting laws as my personal beliefs.
If you want to contribute to the knowledge base and learn about your vehicle's lighting, and the differences in the headlamps, that's great, but do so in an appropriate manner.
