LED Headlight Conversions

[ncnmra]

According to the site, this referenced bulb does not fit a 2014 Explorer.

Yes; but its just a 9005; so if you select it, then it does show the Explorer is a fit:

https://www.amazon.ca/BPS-Lighting-Headlight-Bulbs-12000LM/dp/B01FGTQASK?tag=vglnk-ca-c1080-20&th=1

 

[Jon M]

I installed these today. They fit inside the dust cover. They can be adjusted, so if you want the LEDs facing a different way (left & right, vs up & down), you can turn them in the socket.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M049TFK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

View media item 774View media item 773

 

[autoworksrussia]

 

[Alan519]

Pretty slick

 

[Rob8484]

Hello all! I have been searching to see what bulbs are best to replace the stock ones. I was thinking about LED's, but there are so many different ones, its enough to make your head spin! Anyone have ones that they recommend? I hate to spend the money and have them be junk! Also, how will the LED's work with daytime running lights? Don't the daytime light run at a lower power? Will this damage the LED's? I have searched some, and it sound like you cannot turn off the daytime running lights?
Any help would be great, we leave for Florida in a couple weeks and would like to have some new lights in before we leave!
Thanks!!

 

[peterk9]

Hello all! I have been searching to see what bulbs are best to replace the stock ones. I was thinking about LED's, but there are so many different ones, its enough to make your head spin! Anyone have ones that they recommend? I hate to spend the money and have them be junk! Also, how will the LED's work with daytime running lights? Don't the daytime light run at a lower power? Will this damage the LED's? I have searched some, and it sound like you cannot turn off the daytime running lights?
Any help would be great, we leave for Florida in a couple weeks and would like to have some new lights in before we leave!
Thanks!!

Welcome to the Forum.
Your thread has been merged with this one found using the handy 'Search' feature (upper right). Many existing threads on various topics can be found that way.
I'm guessing that DRL is not required in your state. DRL can be turned ON by the use of an IDS tool that the dealer has. Many members have had that done. Apparently you can choose to have them on the amber lights or headlights from what I've read. I'm guessing that it can then also be turned OFF.
On my '17 the DRL (mandatory) are on the low beams which are LED.

Peter

 

[Jon M]

Hello all! I have been searching to see what bulbs are best to replace the stock ones. I was thinking about LED's, but there are so many different ones, its enough to make your head spin! Anyone have ones that they recommend? I hate to spend the money and have them be junk! Also, how will the LED's work with daytime running lights? Don't the daytime light run at a lower power? Will this damage the LED's? I have searched some, and it sound like you cannot turn off the daytime running lights?
Any help would be great, we leave for Florida in a couple weeks and would like to have some new lights in before we leave!
Thanks!!

I am very happy with the ones I installed.

I installed these today. They fit inside the dust cover. They can be adjusted, so if you want the LEDs facing a different way (left & right, vs up & down), you can turn them in the socket.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M049TFK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

View media item 774View media item 773

As far as DRLs, mine are on these, and no issues.

They can be turned off, either by the dealer, or via Forscan. You can find a thread on that here in the forum.

 

[Rob8484]

I am very happy with the ones I installed.



As far as DRLs, mine are on these, and no issues.

They can be turned off, either by the dealer, or via Forscan. You can find a thread on that here in the forum.

Bummer that they are out of stock on Amazon! I will look around a few other places and see if I can find them.......thanks!!!

 

[Rob8484]

Bummer that they are out of stock on Amazon! I will look around a few other places and see if I can find them.......thanks!!!

Found another seller on amazon with them. Only $40.......seems a little cheap from the others ive seen. Most have averaged around $100. So are they that much better than the halogens?

 

[Rob8484]

9005 are the bulbs for the headlights and H11 are the fog light bulbs....correct??

Trying to decide between these also.........https://www.xenonhids.com/checkout/cart/configure/id/360314/

and these........https://www.amazon.com/OPT7-Fluxbea...f_=ya_aw_od_pi&tag=ef_viglink_convert-20&th=1

The ones on amazon show the H11 don't fit the fog lights though??


The ones at xenonhids.com have an option for Warning Cancellers / Capacitors for $10 each set. Are these needed?

 

[Jon M]

9005 are the bulbs for the headlights and H11 are the fog light bulbs....correct??

Trying to decide between these also.........https://www.xenonhids.com/checkout/cart/configure/id/360314/

and these........https://www.amazon.com/OPT7-Fluxbea...f_=ya_aw_od_pi&tag=ef_viglink_convert-20&th=1

The ones on amazon show the H11 don't fit the fog lights though??


The ones at xenonhids.com have an option for Warning Cancellers / Capacitors for $10 each set. Are these needed?

Yes, 9005 & H11. I think they are much better than the halogens. It's a brighter, whiter, cleaner light, and it doesn't fade as much at the edge of the beam's range.

I think I paid $50. I looked at the reviews, and they were equal or close to the ratings of the $100 ones, so I took a shot. They seem to be a solid company.

A lot of H11s on Amazon say they don't fit, but they do. I used these. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E6HDXHO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Same thing, solid reviews. If I'd been able to find H11s from Sirius LED, I would've gotten those.

One thing I really liked about the headlights is that they fit with no modifications to the dust covers, unlike the majority of the options out there, that require you to cut them.

I've never used HIDs, because they always seem to be so much more expensive, and they require mounting extra hardware. I prefer plug & play solutions.

The H11s I got do have more wiring, and a chip/capacitor/heatsink/something, that had to be secured. Not a big deal, and they work well.

Warning cancellers may be needed. They aren't on my LEDs, because their built in. That's true of many LEDs now, vs a few years ago. I have converted everything except my visors to LED, and only the turn signals required capacitors.

 

[supr squirrel]

I did mine two nights ago and was able to cut a slit in the dust cover to run the wires through. I had no issue re-installing the dust cover.

I bought these:
http://www.amazon.com/Conversion-Headlight-6500K-Brightness-Warranty/dp/B017M57DJG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456857837&sr=8-2&keywords=evitek 9005&tag=viglink20460-20

Ok, @Fentress24, I've got a question. Did you do both bulbs at once or did you do one and 'test' to see if it worked and then do the other? I ask because I bought the identical lights as you and they aren't working....but I only did the passenger side (tried both lights before giving up.)

It doesn't seem like something you'd need both hooked up to work, but I suppose that might be the case. But I wanted to ask you (and others) who have done this mod if they did both at the same time prior to removing both halogens and then still achieving the same (bad) results. :-/

Edit: Problem solved, see next post.

 

[supr squirrel]

Thought about simply editing my post to Fentress and putting this in there, but figured I'd make a new post so anyone who encounters a similar issue will know to try this.

Before I get to that though, I have to say this really, really bothered me. I worked on electronics in the Marine Corps and not being able to solve this issue was really bugging me. On top of that my father-in-law is an electrical engineer (along with being a farmer, haha) and when I ran my 'troubleshooting' by him we both came to the conclusion that I'd covered all the steps and the LEDs were likely defective.

Flash forward to late this morning. I asked my father-in-law to come by so that we could wire both LEDs up at the same time. I didn't think it would work. He didn't think it would work. Nothing that I read online indicated that both had to be wired up for it to work correctly, either. But the 'troubleshooter' in me wouldn't let it go and that was the only thing I hadn't tried.....

...and they still didn't work. Bummed, we were just about to unhook the LEDs and reinstall the halogens when a thought came over me: what if the plug for the LEDs are wired backwards? We'd be hooking them up with the little 'nipple' that the 'fingers' on the plug grab on to the proper way (so that it locks.) I decided to flip my plug around to where the nipple was on the back side of the fingers. Success! Did it to my father-in-laws side and we now had working LED high beams. There is a rubber plug that fits very tightly inside the plug side of the LED that should keep it wired up correctly, but since the nipple and fingers are on opposite sides it isn't 'locked' like it should be. I didn't do it today (yet), but I will use electrical tape to make sure they don't wiggle apart (but, again, that rubber boot keeps things very tight, anyway.

TL;DR

If your LEDs don't work even after wiring them up, try flipping the plug around. It was kind of a last ditch effort on my part and thankfully that was the issue.

 

[Jon M]

Thought about simply editing my post to Fentress and putting this in there, but figured I'd make a new post so anyone who encounters a similar issue will know to try this.

Before I get to that though, I have to say this really, really bothered me. I worked on electronics in the Marine Corps and not being able to solve this issue was really bugging me. On top of that my father-in-law is an electrical engineer (along with being a farmer, haha) and when I ran my 'troubleshooting' by him we both came to the conclusion that I'd covered all the steps and the LEDs were likely defective.

Flash forward to late this morning. I asked my father-in-law to come by so that we could wire both LEDs up at the same time. I didn't think it would work. He didn't think it would work. Nothing that I read online indicated that both had to be wired up for it to work correctly, either. But the 'troubleshooter' in me wouldn't let it go and that was the only thing I hadn't tried.....

...and they still didn't work. Bummed, we were just about to unhook the LEDs and reinstall the halogens when a thought came over me: what if the plug for the LEDs are wired backwards? We'd be hooking them up with the little 'nipple' that the 'fingers' on the plug grab on to the proper way (so that it locks.) I decided to flip my plug around to where the nipple was on the back side of the fingers. Success! Did it to my father-in-laws side and we now had working LED high beams. There is a rubber plug that fits very tightly inside the plug side of the LED that should keep it wired up correctly, but since the nipple and fingers are on opposite sides it isn't 'locked' like it should be. I didn't do it today (yet), but I will use electrical tape to make sure they don't wiggle apart (but, again, that rubber boot keeps things very tight, anyway.

TL;DR

If your LEDs don't work even after wiring them up, try flipping the plug around. It was kind of a last ditch effort on my part and thankfully that was the issue.

Unfortunately, a common problem on LEDs. I've converted everything except the visors, and I ran into many that I had to flip, turn signals, side markers, interior lights, tag lights...plug it in, it doesn't work, flip it, it works.

 

[Manuel Garcia]

Hello, I have leds in my explorer and sucks

 

[peterk9]

Hello, I have leds in my explorer and sucks

Did you add them in the head lights? As per your other post, your Explorer did not come from the factory with LED head lights. They are Halogen.

Peter

 

[leon16]

Do you need high/low LED or low LED can do both high/low beam?

Okay, so here is what I did with my light solutions. I bought 2 extra dust caps.

I first started with 55W HIDs. Relay kit to the battery and all. Super bright and it really lit up the road super well. Cheap Ebay kits that cost around 22 bucks with ballast and bulbs. Cheap ballasts and bulbs. I went through at least 4 of them. Every time I did a road trip to Florida and back, at least one one HID died. Once it was a ballast, and once it was a bulb.

I then bought decent 35W ballasts from Ebay for about 18 bucks to replace those 55Ws but kept the same bulbs. The bulbs and ballasts have lasted me through my one roadtrip to Florida with all night driving no problems.

Last month, I decided to upgrade to these fanless LED bulbs:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-2015-24V...ash=item4af12d2ba0:g:NZ4AAOSwuTxWAm-E&vxp=mtr

They work great. They are instantly bright since they are LED. No need for a ballast or anything. The best part is I can shove the little box and the wires all into the housing and put my dust cover back on. All you have to do to get the heatsink to work is to spread the leaves and flip them a bit. No need to cut your dust caps. They have lasted me during some pretty long night drives.

In terms of brightness and performance:

55W:
Pros - Brightest out of all of them and really lights up the road. Good light spread to the sides.
Cons - Unreliable as heck and won't last you a road trip, dies quickly on you, bulbs and ballasts. Have to drill a hole through the dust cover to wire to ballast. Need a relay kit.

35W:
Pros - Still brighter than halogens by a lot and still has a decently good spread of light to the sides.
Cons - Needs a relay kit. Needs to drill a hole through rubber dust cover.

LED fanless:
Pros: Just as bright as the 35W HIDs. No cutting necessary. Dust caps go back on. No ballast required. Instant on.
Cons: Comes in one color and it has a 5000K - 6000K look instead of a 4300K. The horizontal spread of the light is just like the stock halogen. (Since the LEDs use an LED facing up and down but none to the sides).

Out of all the solutions. I really like the LED fanless solution. Had I found out about it sooner, I probably would have never bought those HIDs. Hopefully these LEDs were built correctly so the voltage spikes of the car doesn't make these LEDs flicker in the future. I'll be going to Florida with these bulbs and I'm hoping it'll last a 16 hour drive one way. Only time can tell.

EDIT: After having two separate LED kits, I bought a pair of 4,800 lumens. The brightness is there, but the throw isn't as far as an HID would go.

 

[leon16]

Yes. I have been running the LEDs for about a week now. I do like them. The color is about the same as my 6K HIDs, maybe slightly whiter. The LEDs are slightly less bright, but still very bright. The beam pattern seems well dispersed. Overall I am happy with the LEDs and think they offer a good option to HID.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00&tag=viglink20460-20

Do you get both hi/low with those Car Rover LED? or do you need dedicated hi/lo LED?

 

[1995E]

Do you need high/low LED or low LED can do both high/low beam?

Do you have an 11 - 15 or 16 - current?

For 11 - 15 Explorers, the stock halogen is just one bulb for both high and low. No different filament. Beam pattern is controlled by a flap to shine above the cutoff. I'm happy with my fanless LEDs. I recommend not getting one with a plastic housing and getting one with a really good metal construction.

 

[jsgoofn]

Sorry if this is a post that has been addressed but I can't find what I'm looking for with the search function.

Has anyone done a straight swap from halogen to LED using the OEM halogen projector? If so, were there any issues? I have read that the LEDs are really bright but do not actually throw the light as far as the original halogens. I hate to waste $$ for appearance only and no improvement in down the road visibility. Any assistance is greatly appreciated!!