Informative Pros/Cons Halogen, HID, Retrofit lighting setups | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Informative Pros/Cons Halogen, HID, Retrofit lighting setups

Dynamikillu51ons

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City, State
Detroit,MI
Year, Model & Trim Level
2013 fusion ti
Took the time to make an informative post about the differences between 3 different types of lighting made available for the Ford Explorer.

1. Halogen headlights (come with most ford explorers)
2A. HID lighting (factory equipped)
2B. HID lighting (drop-in hid kit)
3. HID Projector Retrofit

First things first - education with terms and FAQ.

Halogen bulb - standard OEM bulb that comes in majority of the vehicles from the factory.
HID bulb - High Intensity Discharge bulb

Retrofit HID Projector - Retrofitting is the process of installing a xenon or bi-xenon(functions both as low and high beam) projector into a reflector based halogen headlight. It is the best HID headlight upgrade possible since the projector will control the light into a properly dispersed, non-glaring beam pattern


Pics are listed with general explanation of what their scenarios include

2 Projector Retrofit HID-SPECIFIC PROJECTORS (Morimoto EvoX-R)






Crappy Aftermarket HID setup


OEM Halogen


Projector Retrofit with HID-Specific EVOXr projector



Utilizing the pictures as an aid, you can see the significant differences between each setup.

Halogen:
Pros- comes with the car, lasts pretty long
Cons- color is ugly, light output is mediocre

HID (drop-in kit)
Pros- Cheap mod, ability to change color of light output, brighter than halogen
Cons- Generic HID kits are mass manufactured by the 1000s, sometimes their bulbs are made poorly and disrupt proper light output. You can see this in the pic that the light is scattered unevenly (each HID bulb is different pending their manufacturer). Sometimes reliability of kits are compromised.

OEM-equipped HID
Pros - Look clean, last long, light output is increased compared to halogen
Cons - expensive as an option or trim-level base, OEM headlights look bland

Projector Retrofit HID setup
Pros - Great output that is fully optimized, light being dispersed is significantly wider and further than both halogen and OEM HIDs.
Cons - expensive, sometimes more than OEM-equipped HID setups.


Hope this can answer some few questions!

Check out the Black Series Headlights that are offered by Dynamikillu51ons!
Feature a full projector retrofit, black housing, and angry halo!
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412383
 






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