2012 headlights hid to halogen | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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2012 headlights hid to halogen

REEDS98GT

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February 11, 2014
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Year, Model & Trim Level
2011 Explorer Limited
I have a 2012 ford explore limited with HID light that has been wrecked. some gave me a set of halogen lights from a 2013 explorer. plugs match but lights will not come on. do you have any idea if I can make these work?
 



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Just curious as to why you don't just replace the broken HID headlamp? There are many, many posts about members changing their OEM Halogens to HID because of the poor light output.
Your profile shows you have a 2011 Limited. Do you have both?

Peter
 






Peter, he has the OEM HID wiring...this is not compatiable with aftermarket HID equipment. The aftermarket HID kits are additional wiring (for power) and grab the signal from the OEM headlight connector to tell the ballast when to fire. He would need to replace the gifted headlight set with an OEM HID headlight for everything to work. I imagine there is different wiring.
 






That is what I actually meant. To replace it with an OEM HID. I guess I should have explained that a bit better. Does that also mean that he would be unable to install the halogens he was given or would that entail a lot of rewiring?

Peter
 






Peter, he has the OEM HID wiring...this is not compatiable with aftermarket HID equipment. The aftermarket HID kits are additional wiring (for power) and grab the signal from the OEM headlight connector to tell the ballast when to fire. He would need to replace the gifted headlight set with an OEM HID headlight for everything to work. I imagine there is different wiring.

EDIT: Peter beat me to it.

I think Peter was stating that why go backward in performance(Factory HID to factory halogen). He wasn’t referring to aftermarket HID.

As you state, I believe the OP was going for an inexpensive(i.e. free headlights) vs. purchasing a new/used factory HID headlight assembly.

For REEDS98GT, make sure you aren’t trying to power the halogen bulbs through the factory HID ballasts. I think you have to go from the main headlight harness(bypassing the factory HID ballast) directly to the bulb. In fact, I’m not sure of the exact details, but you may have blown the halogen bulbs if the HID ballasts tried to “ignite” the bulb.

Double Edit: To Peter's point, are the factory ballasts hardwired into the main harness, or is there a plug(similar to an aftermarket HID kit) that plugs into the factory ballast that can simply be disconnected and plugged directly into the halogen bulb?
 






Not going through the ballasts. Reason for using these head lights are they are free.
 






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