After much searching and a few weeks coming up with so-so kits, I read about the kits from Retro-solutions on eBay having a good reputation, so I checked the seller's eBay store and found that he not only sold 35W HID kits, but also 55W HIDs, which are about 5X brighter than halogen bulbs, about 4600 lumens.
I ordered the kit Thursday and the mailman delivered it Saturday.
The kit came in a suitcase, nicely packed. I did a bench check and the bulbs worked as expected. They start out a bit purplish and quickly warm up in color and get very brilliant, like flash bulb intensity in about 30-45 seconds.
So the next step was to prep my X for the kits. First step was to replace my badly burnt sockets and remove the old bulbs.
The next step was to get the new bulbs into the diamond cut reflectors. That was impossible without removing the whole assembly from the truck as they are just a bit too large with the collar and magnetic solenoid to get through the tiny space between the front end supports and the metal framework behind the headlights. So I tried to remove the battery, but soon found out that terminals were so frozen that I stripped the nut trying to loosen it. I got a bigger wrench and tried to turn the nut, but the whole post was bending and the top of the battery was flexing so I stopped out of concern I might break the connections internal to the battery. Failing that, I had to remove the headlamp assembly. Those plastic retainers are a joke. They break. It was a fiasco to get them out without serious damage to the housing adjusters.
I started this installation around 6pm. I finished up at 10:45.
I had to mount the ballasts and fish the wiring harnesses through in front of the radiator. It was necessary to unbolt the top supports for the radiator in order to make enough space to push the harness in to that space.
There are several connections on a bi-xenon system. You have the high voltage leads to the bulb, but there is also the solenoid control voltage. The ballasts are controlled by a relay that switches the current to the bulbs. Your old headlamp wiring doesn't carry the bulb current, so it's like having one of those performance wiring harnesses.
I had a heck of a time adjusting the headlamps because of all the broken plastic retainers (some of which broke in March 2 years ago when I originally installed the diamond cut reflectors in a snow storm). But I got them into the ballpark.
One problem I have is with the pattern on the left headlamp assembly. I think it's a flaw in the diamond cut reflector's manufacture, because I never could get a clean pattern out of it with the halogen bulbs and with the HID, it's even more pronounced. While the passenger headlamp has a decent low/hi beam pattern, the driver's side looks like a paint spalttering of light. Low and high beam settings only rearrange the splatter, but don't really raise or lower the beam. It's a mess. But the right headlight has a better pattern than I'd expected. Both lamps are fogged a bit from the smoke from melting terminals and sockets with the 100W halogen bulbs. Also the clear lens is now pitted from road dust hitting it for 18 months.
My thought it to buy new reflectors and just change out the whole thing again so I get a good pattern with both lights.
I took a test drive around the block and the pattern seemed okay, just a lot brighter and whiter (4300K). I'd say that despite the 20% efficient reflectors, the light output on the road was now satisfactory. The low beam left a big dark spot in the portion of the road where oncoming traffic would be, so I think we'll be fine in that area. The high beam lights up more distant objects, while keeping enough light in the foreground so that everything is lit like daylight.
I would imagine that if I had real efficient reflectors, like the kind in my wife's Mitsubishi, that these bulbs would be overkill on brightness. For the first time since I owned the X, I was able to drive comfortably at night. The 55W lamps really light up the road and my eyes don't get that sleepy feeling from straining to make out what's 200' down the road. I still wish I had more side illumination, but that's a Ford headlamp design issue with the pattern. But this is 300% better than what I had with my 100W halogens.
The kit was about $180 or so and is well worth it. And the seller is about 80 minutes drive from me, so warranty issues are no problem. He claims this kit will have about 3000 hours lifespan, or about 7-9 years typical daily night driving.
And one more thing: unlike some of the Chinese import kits, this one doesn't interfere with my AM radio station listening.
This is the perfect kit for the X. I'm very pleased with the results, even with the crappy reflector on the left side.
I ordered the kit Thursday and the mailman delivered it Saturday.
The kit came in a suitcase, nicely packed. I did a bench check and the bulbs worked as expected. They start out a bit purplish and quickly warm up in color and get very brilliant, like flash bulb intensity in about 30-45 seconds.
So the next step was to prep my X for the kits. First step was to replace my badly burnt sockets and remove the old bulbs.
The next step was to get the new bulbs into the diamond cut reflectors. That was impossible without removing the whole assembly from the truck as they are just a bit too large with the collar and magnetic solenoid to get through the tiny space between the front end supports and the metal framework behind the headlights. So I tried to remove the battery, but soon found out that terminals were so frozen that I stripped the nut trying to loosen it. I got a bigger wrench and tried to turn the nut, but the whole post was bending and the top of the battery was flexing so I stopped out of concern I might break the connections internal to the battery. Failing that, I had to remove the headlamp assembly. Those plastic retainers are a joke. They break. It was a fiasco to get them out without serious damage to the housing adjusters.
I started this installation around 6pm. I finished up at 10:45.
I had to mount the ballasts and fish the wiring harnesses through in front of the radiator. It was necessary to unbolt the top supports for the radiator in order to make enough space to push the harness in to that space.
There are several connections on a bi-xenon system. You have the high voltage leads to the bulb, but there is also the solenoid control voltage. The ballasts are controlled by a relay that switches the current to the bulbs. Your old headlamp wiring doesn't carry the bulb current, so it's like having one of those performance wiring harnesses.
I had a heck of a time adjusting the headlamps because of all the broken plastic retainers (some of which broke in March 2 years ago when I originally installed the diamond cut reflectors in a snow storm). But I got them into the ballpark.
One problem I have is with the pattern on the left headlamp assembly. I think it's a flaw in the diamond cut reflector's manufacture, because I never could get a clean pattern out of it with the halogen bulbs and with the HID, it's even more pronounced. While the passenger headlamp has a decent low/hi beam pattern, the driver's side looks like a paint spalttering of light. Low and high beam settings only rearrange the splatter, but don't really raise or lower the beam. It's a mess. But the right headlight has a better pattern than I'd expected. Both lamps are fogged a bit from the smoke from melting terminals and sockets with the 100W halogen bulbs. Also the clear lens is now pitted from road dust hitting it for 18 months.
My thought it to buy new reflectors and just change out the whole thing again so I get a good pattern with both lights.
I took a test drive around the block and the pattern seemed okay, just a lot brighter and whiter (4300K). I'd say that despite the 20% efficient reflectors, the light output on the road was now satisfactory. The low beam left a big dark spot in the portion of the road where oncoming traffic would be, so I think we'll be fine in that area. The high beam lights up more distant objects, while keeping enough light in the foreground so that everything is lit like daylight.
I would imagine that if I had real efficient reflectors, like the kind in my wife's Mitsubishi, that these bulbs would be overkill on brightness. For the first time since I owned the X, I was able to drive comfortably at night. The 55W lamps really light up the road and my eyes don't get that sleepy feeling from straining to make out what's 200' down the road. I still wish I had more side illumination, but that's a Ford headlamp design issue with the pattern. But this is 300% better than what I had with my 100W halogens.
The kit was about $180 or so and is well worth it. And the seller is about 80 minutes drive from me, so warranty issues are no problem. He claims this kit will have about 3000 hours lifespan, or about 7-9 years typical daily night driving.
And one more thing: unlike some of the Chinese import kits, this one doesn't interfere with my AM radio station listening.
This is the perfect kit for the X. I'm very pleased with the results, even with the crappy reflector on the left side.
