I bought some of the diamond cut clear corners and headlamp housings that others have bought here and I had a hellish time with installation.
I don't have a garage, and I was out in 25ºF weather with sleet starting to fall 3 hours into the 6-hour job that this turned into.
The driver's side headlamp unit housing wasn't quite the same dimensions as the original--the rails in the chassis did not quite line up with the clips on the new units. This caused me to have to exert a lot of pressure to line up the dissimilar parts. This is when I discovered that the plastic used in the black adjuster retainers is inferior to the Ford OEM retainers. When I finally got the driver's side headlamp lined up and gave it a good push to get the clip retainer into the hole, it went in--to far! The ears broke right off like they weren't even there at all. There was no stopping power--those things just snapped right off. I lost the ears on the top clips left and right on the unit.
So now there is nothing holding the housing in---save for the wiring to the bulb.
And that's another story; the bulb retainer ring is defective. It is supposed to catch 3 screws on the housing. But one of the plastic catches is missing. So the bulb won't align properly. That unit casts diffuse light, not a focused beam.
I did manage to install a new wiring harness that I bought from SUVLights and that went okay, although I had to remove the top bolts of the radiator and transmission cooler/ a/c condenser coil in order to dress the harness along side the existing wiring harness. That was a bit of work.
What disappoints me is that with all that work, I still can't see much of the road light up. With a temporary shim wedged under the lamp housing to keep it stable, I test drove the Explorer tonight and found that low beam was still woefully inadequate. High beam was too diffuse to really penetrate the distance. If I held 'flash to pass' to force both filaments on, the amount of light was almost adequate for speeds up to 40mph in rainy conditions. But I still can't see right of the curb, so any deer that's waiting to jump into the road is not illuminated still, as with the OEM housings.
I think the largest improvement was the wiring harness. The light output is more white now, but brightness is still not really there.
I think I will trade in my Explorer for a Lexus. My friend's Lexus lights up the road about 10X brighter. His lowbeams are more effective than my lights with all four filaments forced on. I don't get it. And cars with HID projector lamps turn night into day. I'm really irritated with Ford for not providing a safe illumination system for their vehicles. The only thing worse is the old style bulb-in-reflector of my 1948 Dodge pickup truck with 6-volt system. I have flashlights brigher than these headlamps!
All this work and I still can't see where I'm going at night. I'm going to see a dealer about a trade in. I've had it with these lights.
I don't have a garage, and I was out in 25ºF weather with sleet starting to fall 3 hours into the 6-hour job that this turned into.
The driver's side headlamp unit housing wasn't quite the same dimensions as the original--the rails in the chassis did not quite line up with the clips on the new units. This caused me to have to exert a lot of pressure to line up the dissimilar parts. This is when I discovered that the plastic used in the black adjuster retainers is inferior to the Ford OEM retainers. When I finally got the driver's side headlamp lined up and gave it a good push to get the clip retainer into the hole, it went in--to far! The ears broke right off like they weren't even there at all. There was no stopping power--those things just snapped right off. I lost the ears on the top clips left and right on the unit.
So now there is nothing holding the housing in---save for the wiring to the bulb.
And that's another story; the bulb retainer ring is defective. It is supposed to catch 3 screws on the housing. But one of the plastic catches is missing. So the bulb won't align properly. That unit casts diffuse light, not a focused beam.
I did manage to install a new wiring harness that I bought from SUVLights and that went okay, although I had to remove the top bolts of the radiator and transmission cooler/ a/c condenser coil in order to dress the harness along side the existing wiring harness. That was a bit of work.
What disappoints me is that with all that work, I still can't see much of the road light up. With a temporary shim wedged under the lamp housing to keep it stable, I test drove the Explorer tonight and found that low beam was still woefully inadequate. High beam was too diffuse to really penetrate the distance. If I held 'flash to pass' to force both filaments on, the amount of light was almost adequate for speeds up to 40mph in rainy conditions. But I still can't see right of the curb, so any deer that's waiting to jump into the road is not illuminated still, as with the OEM housings.
I think the largest improvement was the wiring harness. The light output is more white now, but brightness is still not really there.
I think I will trade in my Explorer for a Lexus. My friend's Lexus lights up the road about 10X brighter. His lowbeams are more effective than my lights with all four filaments forced on. I don't get it. And cars with HID projector lamps turn night into day. I'm really irritated with Ford for not providing a safe illumination system for their vehicles. The only thing worse is the old style bulb-in-reflector of my 1948 Dodge pickup truck with 6-volt system. I have flashlights brigher than these headlamps!
All this work and I still can't see where I'm going at night. I'm going to see a dealer about a trade in. I've had it with these lights.
