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Explorer's Poor Headlights

I am having problems seeing at night with my 2015 Ford Explorer. I have had the headlight housing replaced which did not fix the problem. I cannot imagine that there are not a lot of other people with the same complaint I have. I did read a post by an attorney saying the lights are like having a black curtain painted on the top half of the windshield. This would be the cut off line where below the line there is light and above it is total darkness. On back roads where there are no street lights, this is a horrible blind spot that is worsened by going down hills and around curves. Going down a slope causes the projection to be shortened to immediately in front of the vehicle. If there were pedestrians or animals beyond this area, they would be invisible. Driving over bumps in the road make the cut off line bounce around, quickly becoming annoying. (I live in PA, which is known for bad roads!) Anything above this cut off line is invisible, such as road signs. On a perfectly straight and level road the lights are bearable.
Has anyone experienced this with your headlights and if so, did you find a fix for them? I lose too much money to sell or trade in this car. Ford is apparently not going to do anything as this is how the lights are supposed to work. Thanks
 



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Have you tried driving with your high beams on?
Have you tried adjusting your headlights to aim higher?
The cut-off is there for a reason, so you don't blind other drivers.
 






I am having problems seeing at night with my 2015 Ford Explorer. I have had the headlight housing replaced which did not fix the problem. I cannot imagine that there are not a lot of other people with the same complaint I have. I did read a post by an attorney saying the lights are like having a black curtain painted on the top half of the windshield. This would be the cut off line where below the line there is light and above it is total darkness. On back roads where there are no street lights, this is a horrible blind spot that is worsened by going down hills and around curves. Going down a slope causes the projection to be shortened to immediately in front of the vehicle. If there were pedestrians or animals beyond this area, they would be invisible. Driving over bumps in the road make the cut off line bounce around, quickly becoming annoying. (I live in PA, which is known for bad roads!) Anything above this cut off line is invisible, such as road signs. On a perfectly straight and level road the lights are bearable.
Has anyone experienced this with your headlights and if so, did you find a fix for them? I lose too much money to sell or trade in this car. Ford is apparently not going to do anything as this is how the lights are supposed to work. Thanks
Welcome to the Forum.:wave:
Using the Forum's handy 'Search' feature (upper right) I found this thread and merged yours with it. As you can see, there are many members who have complained about the light output. I don't believe the problem is the projectors but the bulbs being used. Although not the proper way of going about correcting the issue, several members have installed HID kits in the projectors and the light output has improved greatly. The proper way to do this is to also change the internal housing for one designed for HID bulbs.
Also, please add the trim level (Base, XLT, etc.) to your profile so it appears in the margin. This can be useful info to have at times when replying. Thanks.

Peter
 






Dear Ford: its not just you, its me too!
OK so my headlights suck at night.
I found a lens for $1200 that should help fix the problem in January 2017. Its not LED, not HID, its a cataract in my left eye, a cloudy lens in my eye that is blocking light coming in, and affecting my night vision.
Who knew?
Now I am going to have to listen to Blownsmoke tell me it was "operator error" all along, not Ford! Darn it.
 






Dear Ford: its not just you, its me too!
OK so my headlights suck at night.
I found a lens for $1200 that should help fix the problem in January 2017. Its not LED, not HID, its a cataract in my left eye, a cloudy lens in my eye that is blocking light coming in, and affecting my night vision.
Who knew?
Now I am going to have to listen to Blownsmoke tell me it was "operator error" all along, not Ford! Darn it.

I am sorry, you are calling me out for no reason why? And you can at least spell my name right if you are going to mention me in a reply that is completely pointless in this thread.
 






Have you tried driving with your high beams on?
Have you tried adjusting your headlights to aim higher?
The cut-off is there for a reason, so you don't blind other drivers.
The lights are adjusted to the high normal level. Higher and they blind oncoming traffic. The cut off is dangerous as at night you cannot see far enough ahead on the road. I think driving 25 miles an hour on a 50 mph road so I have time to stop or see turns in the road is also dangerous.
 






The lights are adjusted to the high normal level. Higher and they blind oncoming traffic. The cut off is dangerous as at night you cannot see far enough ahead on the road. I think driving 25 miles an hour on a 50 mph road so I have time to stop or see turns in the road is also dangerous.

Looks like an HID conversion may be the next step.
 






The lights are adjusted to the high normal level. Higher and they blind oncoming traffic. The cut off is dangerous as at night you cannot see far enough ahead on the road. I think driving 25 miles an hour on a 50 mph road so I have time to stop or see turns in the road is also dangerous.
Do you have navigation? If so, that could help with identifying upcoming turns etc. While there is a sharp cut-off on the lights, which is normal, I've never had an issue with there not being enough light to be able to read road signs. Even the HID and LED lights have a cut-off margin. You can always try and upgrade the bulbs you have. There are several threads on upgrading and/or swapping out the internals to accommodate the proper installation of HID lights. Unfortunately or fortunately, I've not had the experience of driving an Explorer with the halogen lights but I have them as high beam on my 2017 and find that they do a very good job.
As previously requested, please add the trim level to your Explorer so it appears in the margin.

Peter
 






Below is a post that best describes my lights. I don't have navigation. What would the HID conversion do? Is that basically changing to a different light bulb?

Do Your New Projector-Type Headlights Fail to Provide Adequate Light On Dark & Undulating Roads?
Do you have a newer model car with headlights that fail to safely illuminate the road? Do you experience what appears to be a black curtain painted across the upper half of your windshield? Do you find that you can’t see road signs above a certain height or that when you turn into an unlit driveway you cannot see where you are turning? Have you noticed that oncoming cars frequently flash their lights at you and you’re momentarily blinded by an intense light glare?
Many newer model cars today are being made with projector headlights. These projector headlights are different than older models’ standard headlights that had separate high beam and low beam light sources. Projector headlights are lit by a single filament at one focus of an ellipsoidal reflector with a condenser lens in front of the lamp. Between the reflector and the lens there is a shade that provides a cutoff of all light above the center of the light bulb so that, theoretically, the low beams will not blind on-coming drivers with the intense high beam. The shape and sharpness of the cutoff is determined by the shade’s position in the optical system and the shape of the shade’s edge. When the driver turns on the projector’s high beam, the shade is lifted up and removed allowing all the intense light to escape without any cutoff. The high beam from a projector headlight is a very bright and produces a strong glare that can be blinding to oncoming drivers.
Many drivers are now noticing that one significant problem with projector headlights on the low beam setting is that the cut-off line of the light moves when the car hits bumps in the road, accelerates, decelerates, and when climbing or going down a slope in the road. Frequently, drivers now see what appears to be oncoming cars with projector headlights “quickly flashing their brights;” however, in reality the on-coming car has only hit a bump in the road surface causing the cut-off of light to momentarily shift upward exposing a bright burst of the high intensity light. This apparent flashing of the high beams can be really annoying; however, a greater safety concern is that the projector headlights’ cut-off of light moves when the car is going up or down a slope or carrying a heavy load in the back of the vehicle. While going down a slope the projector’s cut-off of light shifts downward and the headlight’s beam distance is significantly diminished out in front of the car (headlights appear to be driven down into the road surface). Obviously, this creates a safety issue because the driver cannot see pedestrians and animals out in front of the car to allow adequate and safe stopping distances. Additionally, road safety signs cannot be read on undulating roads because they are not illuminated since the beam of light is being driven down on the down-slopes. Likewise, when a driver is driving up a grade the projector’s cut-off of light shifts up further than it would on a flat road and more of the high beam intense light is unintentionally directed into the eyes of oncoming traffic. Both of these two unintended consequences of projector headlights can lead to extremely dangerous driving conditions for drivers .
 






Below is a post that best describes my lights. I don't have navigation. What would the HID conversion do? Is that basically changing to a different light bulb?

Do Your New Projector-Type Headlights Fail to Provide Adequate Light On Dark & Undulating Roads?
Do you have a newer model car with headlights that fail to safely illuminate the road? Do you experience what appears to be a black curtain painted across the upper half of your windshield? Do you find that you can’t see road signs above a certain height or that when you turn into an unlit driveway you cannot see where you are turning? Have you noticed that oncoming cars frequently flash their lights at you and you’re momentarily blinded by an intense light glare?
Many newer model cars today are being made with projector headlights. These projector headlights are different than older models’ standard headlights that had separate high beam and low beam light sources. Projector headlights are lit by a single filament at one focus of an ellipsoidal reflector with a condenser lens in front of the lamp. Between the reflector and the lens there is a shade that provides a cutoff of all light above the center of the light bulb so that, theoretically, the low beams will not blind on-coming drivers with the intense high beam. The shape and sharpness of the cutoff is determined by the shade’s position in the optical system and the shape of the shade’s edge. When the driver turns on the projector’s high beam, the shade is lifted up and removed allowing all the intense light to escape without any cutoff. The high beam from a projector headlight is a very bright and produces a strong glare that can be blinding to oncoming drivers.
Many drivers are now noticing that one significant problem with projector headlights on the low beam setting is that the cut-off line of the light moves when the car hits bumps in the road, accelerates, decelerates, and when climbing or going down a slope in the road. Frequently, drivers now see what appears to be oncoming cars with projector headlights “quickly flashing their brights;” however, in reality the on-coming car has only hit a bump in the road surface causing the cut-off of light to momentarily shift upward exposing a bright burst of the high intensity light. This apparent flashing of the high beams can be really annoying; however, a greater safety concern is that the projector headlights’ cut-off of light moves when the car is going up or down a slope or carrying a heavy load in the back of the vehicle. While going down a slope the projector’s cut-off of light shifts downward and the headlight’s beam distance is significantly diminished out in front of the car (headlights appear to be driven down into the road surface). Obviously, this creates a safety issue because the driver cannot see pedestrians and animals out in front of the car to allow adequate and safe stopping distances. Additionally, road safety signs cannot be read on undulating roads because they are not illuminated since the beam of light is being driven down on the down-slopes. Likewise, when a driver is driving up a grade the projector’s cut-off of light shifts up further than it would on a flat road and more of the high beam intense light is unintentionally directed into the eyes of oncoming traffic. Both of these two unintended consequences of projector headlights can lead to extremely dangerous driving conditions for drivers .

HIDs will provide greater light output.
The issue based on the snippet you found off the web has been solved with vehicles that come with self-leveling and adaptive headlights; such as that on my RX350.
 






HIDs will provide greater light output.
The issue based on the snippet you found off the web has been solved with vehicles that come with self-leveling and adaptive headlights; such as that on my RX350.
That would be nice if they would be able to replace my lights with those. I had car back to dealer today and asked them to research different lights that will work with my vehicle. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they find something to replace these lights with. I mentioned to them that they should let people know that these headlights are in vehicles before they sell them.
 






.......What would the HID conversion do? Is that basically changing to a different light bulb?.........
A proper HID conversion consists of not only changing the type of bulb but also the internal housing since the housings for HID and Halogen are different because the bulbs produce light in different ways. Many have simply put a 'plug and play' setup in because it is much less costly and while it greatly improves the light output, it isn't possible to get the proper focus. Also they are not DOT approved for on road use.
There are several threads on changing to HID, some with pictures, and you can find them by using the Forum's 'Search' function (upper right).

Peter
 






A proper HID conversion consists of not only changing the type of bulb but also the internal housing since the housings for HID and Halogen are different because the bulbs produce light in different ways. Many have simply put a 'plug and play' setup in because it is much less costly and while it greatly improves the light output, it isn't possible to get the proper focus. Also they are not DOT approved for on road use.
There are several threads on changing to HID, some with pictures, and you can find them by using the Forum's 'Search' function (upper right).

Peter
 






Thank you. I will look into this option.
 












There are so many complaints about these stock halogen headlights; it's surprising that Ford hasn't engineered a retrofit kit to upgrade to the HIDs. Seems like a no-brainer given that the car offers HIDs already in other trim lines. Presumably all they would need to do is package the HID parts in a way that dealers could swap out the existing halogen parts (and maybe supply a new harness adpater or similar extras). They'd probably sell a lot of upgrade kits; I'd buy one.
 






There are so many complaints about these stock halogen headlights; it's surprising that Ford hasn't engineered a retrofit kit to upgrade to the HIDs. Seems like a no-brainer given that the car offers HIDs already in other trim lines. Presumably all they would need to do is package the HID parts in a way that dealers could swap out the existing halogen parts (and maybe supply a new harness adpater or similar extras). They'd probably sell a lot of upgrade kits; I'd buy one.

Quite honestly, there shouldn't even be 5 trims, but there are customers that don't want to spend the few extra thousands and still wants an EX.
 






I used the Diode Dynamics kit. 4300K. Great choice. Greatly improved light output, and I don't get "flashed". Simple install (I used the relay), auto headlights work fine, focus is fine, etc. Don't bother with replacement bulbs. Waste of money.

The factory lights on the XLT and Base are dangerous at night.

http://www.diodedynamics.com/store/...014-ford-explorer-low-beam-hid-conversion-kit
Does Ford not know how dangerous these lights are or are they waiting until someone gets killed to do something about them? I had the car out tonight on busy roads with street lights and there is no problem. The problem is dark back roads.
 






There are so many complaints about these stock halogen headlights; it's surprising that Ford hasn't engineered a retrofit kit to upgrade to the HIDs. Seems like a no-brainer given that the car offers HIDs already in other trim lines. Presumably all they would need to do is package the HID parts in a way that dealers could swap out the existing halogen parts (and maybe supply a new harness adpater or similar extras). They'd probably sell a lot of upgrade kits; I'd buy one.
My Ford dealer said I am the only complaint they have had. I am going to write a letter to corporate to complain about them
 



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I used the Diode Dynamics kit. 4300K. Great choice. Greatly improved light output, and I don't get "flashed". Simple install (I used the relay), auto headlights work fine, focus is fine, etc. Don't bother with replacement bulbs. Waste of money.

The factory lights on the XLT and Base are dangerous at night.

http://www.diodedynamics.com/store/...014-ford-explorer-low-beam-hid-conversion-kit
did you read the description of how my lights look on the road? Is this what you had and fixed with the diodedynamics? Did it get rid of that undulating line?
 






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