Will 98-01 Mounty headlights fit on a 97?

[bronchole]

My headlights suck on my 97 Mountaineer. My wifes headlights on here 96 Explorer which are vurtually the same are considerably better. I attribute that to the reflectors not getting contamincated with crap over the years and that someone prior to us owning the Explorer has freshened up the lens covers because they are as clear as factory new.

Can I retrofit the newer Mounty headlights on to my rig? More importantly should I? They look like they would provide superior lighting as compared to the 97/Explorer style headlights.

 

[sport97]

I think in order to swap the different lights and grill over it requires the header panel be swapped to... Why not just get a new set of lights or try one of those headlight restore kits?

 

[Joe Dirt]

Vince is correct- need to swap the header panel, and of course the grille...

 

[shadowless127]

Honestly, I had the mounty style headlights in my 98, I had the explorer style in my 97 mounty, and obviously I have the explorer style in my 01. They are the same as far as lighting up the road. I personally think the 98-01 mounty style with the grille look better.

 

[bronchole]

I agree that the 98-01 look a little better, I was primarilly going for performance but not at a significant cost in looks.

I mainly asked because I saw a 98 Mounty in the JY last weekend and I remembered looking at the headlights and thinking "that's different". Then as I was looking thru the "show off your mounty" thread I realized that mine is the one-year-only that has the explorer headlights and I started feeling left out

I do like the looks of the aftermarket projector stuff, its just pretty pricy and I don't know for sure if they upgrade the performacne. Kinda hard to lay out $140-$250 for a pair of headlights and not know ahead of time if they are going to perform significantly better.

 

[n2epv]

Depends on what you want to spend... being an old fart, I value headlight performance more then engine performance. The 2nd gen eX / 97 Mounty lights are about the cheapest around. Picked up a pair for my 97 Mounty for about $50 on ebay (like yours, the originals were crap). Then replaced the Chinese bulbs with Silverstar Ultra's - they now work great.

 

[bronchole]

Hmm, so you are saying that the primary difference between my headlights and my wifes may be just the bulbs. I guess I need to pull a bulb from my wifes and see whats in there.