Ultimate guide for those considering Euro projector headlights - all the basics in one thread!

[SpiceyorangeST]

I ordered a set of depos 3 days ago and paid with paypal. It still says "preparing". I assume that's normal.

 

[Ralf]

I ordered a set of depos 3 days ago and paid with paypal. It still says "preparing". I assume that's normal.

Yes, it took just over a week before they shipped mine. I ordered Fedex shipping if I remember correctly, but it got shipped through Canada Post, so once you get tracking number, check with USPS, if your tracking won't work.

 

[SpiceyorangeST]

Yes, it took just over a week before they shipped mine. I ordered Fedex shipping if I remember correctly, but it got shipped through Canada Post, so once you get tracking number, check with USPS, if your tracking won't work.

I figure ill wait a week before I ask whats going on.

 

[Heavy_D]

Does anyone have the link for the black projector ?

 

[New_Daily]

Does anyone have the link for the black projector ?

I believe those are all long gone at this point

 

[PlatinumFiST]

I believe those are all long gone at this point

They are definitely gone. That's the main reason why I just received a refund instead of a set of headlights. But I'm glad Constantine got it sorted out and gave me the refund.

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[New_Daily]

They are definitely gone. That's the main reason why I just received a refund instead of a set of headlights. But I'm glad Constantine got it sorted out and gave me the refund.

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You can always go the retrofit route. Once you crack them open you can paint any part you want any color you want inside there. Plus upgrade the projectors...etc. I have all my parts now but it'll be a little while before I'm done with them.

 

[PlatinumFiST]

You can always go the retrofit route. Once you crack them open you can paint any part you want any color you want inside there. Plus upgrade the projectors...etc. I have all my parts now but it'll be a little while before I'm done with them.

I think I'll go this route too. It should be a fun side project. It'll take some time and research for sure.

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[xmrrushx]

So, my second attempt to order Black housing depo projectors has fallen through. I ordered directly through the cars245 website this time on April 26th, but the order did not go through smoothly. I was on PC this time also, as I have had issues with mobile interfaces timing out during laggy transactions and wreaking havoc. When I bounced back to cars245 from the payment page at PayPal, it said the transaction was incomplete and the order had been cancelled. I sent an email straight away. Waited two months before sending another email demanding a refund. Constantine jumped in and verified last week that the payment had gone through (I sent him PayPal's receipt email) and said he would refund the order. Crossing my fingers I get that refund.

Now they are unavailable. All I want is black projectors [emoji19]

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I shot them an email early this year about the Black ones... They said they were long gone then. Not sure why they still have them up on the site. Eboy has them for a stupid price.

Just put mine Depos in today. Used Autobeam LEDs in the lows. Need to verify aiming but they don't look like they are too far out of spec 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[lilbleh]

I am new here guys. I have bought the projector DRLs as you guys might have and it is original FORD headlights. All seems to be working fine, have changed all the bulbs too. HIDs for the low-beam, LEDs for the hi-beam and LEDs for the turn signal (without resistors). Now the biggest problem i have is getting the levelling system to work. I have seen the pictures/photos of where the wiring is to be and I do appreciate those. However, if I am not mistaken, none of these seem to be showing on connecting to the headlight switch with the levelling function. I purposely bought the headlight switch from FORD where there is the levelling feature but I am still a little skeptical on the wiring. Any help would be tremendously appreciated.

 

[LilPartyBox]

Thanks @danbfree for an awesome thread! This thread single-handedly gave me the confidence to try this. With all the negative reviews about the aftermarket headlights and Latvia, I was saving up for Ford euros. But it's been 4 years and I'm no closer to justifying $800 for lighting. Thankfully this thread has been going long enough to see Cars245 slowly get its act together! It appears units are now arriving well packaged, undamaged and quickly.

So I bit the bullet and ordered my very own set of Depo projectors yesterday. I used PayPal for some added protection. To my surprise and relief, I received tracking today - a testament to the improvement of Cars245! UPS claims I'll have them tomorrow! I thought I would have weeks to select my bulbs but I actually started researching yesterday and decided on:

H7 - Audew LEDs as per Dan (I was gonna go DDM like i have always done but this 360* array sounds interesting and is a 1/4 of the price)
H1 - Hikari LEDs
PY21W - Everbright LEDs (Claim to be hyper-blink free. I don't really care if they hyper tho)

 

[LilPartyBox]

They arrived today! BUUUUT broken adjuster on the right side. The top adjuster is snapped off clean and the entire assembly wobbles like crazy. I've sent an email to cars245 with following pic. I responded to the order status email as well as the email address they use in PayPal. If they don't get back to me within 2 days I'm escalating with PayPal.Wish me luck. I'll report back...

 

[PlatinumFiST]

They arrived today! BUUUUT broken adjuster on the right side. The top adjuster is snapped off clean and the entire assembly wobbles like crazy. I've sent an email to cars245 with following pic. I responded to the order status email as well as the email address they use in PayPal. If they don't get back to me within 2 days I'm escalating with PayPal.Wish me luck. I'll report back...


View attachment 34455

Sucks they came in damaged. I wonder if they'll have a replacement on hand.

What bulb holder did you order for the h1 bulb? I'm trying to follow the links in the OP but some seem broken or incorrect.

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[PlatinumFiST]

Hoping to decide on some bulbs very soon. They arrived in great shape!

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[LilPartyBox]

Glad to see yours arrived safely! I'm still working with them to resolve my broken one. They've been responsive so I'm optimistic.

The link seems broken because Amazon stopped selling the H1 holders. When i went into my order history to get you the link, it took me to the H7 holders, not the H1.

Here's the description & link so you can see for yourself. Even a google search of that description comes up with a link that looks correct, but takes you to the H7 version instead. Sorry bro...They work like a charm tho if you can find them!
TOMALL H1 LED Headlight Bulb Retainers Holder Adapter for Ford Focus Fiesta Mondeo High Beam Light(1 Pair)

Links to the bulbs i used:

H7 - Audew LEDs
H1 - Hikari LEDs
PY21W - Everbright LEDs (no HYPER BLINK! Bright AF!)

Unrelated but while i was at it:

Tailight - Yorkim Ultra Bright
Revers lights - Auxito 6000k
Interior & plate - Auxito 194
Still searching for a rear blinker that doesn't hyper without the use of resistors



@danbfree please feel free to add to your original post when you get a moment.

A couple of things to be aware of:

I recommend using a 16 gauge wire to run the DRLs. I used 14 on one side and while i got it to work, it was real bitch getting the wire to feed through the OEM connector. Also, the terminals i ordered worked but i had to break off the retaining clip to reassemble the headlight connector. I'll try but it's hard to explain. You'll know what i mean when you get in there.

Each terminal clicks into it's very own plastic retaining clip built into the connector. It's that same retainer you have to open in order to relocate the one terminal for the DRLs. The terminals on Amazon do not clip into said retainers. The hole on the terminal is too close to the tip to line up properly. This makes it impossible to place the white cap back onto the connector because the retainer is held in it's open position by the Amazon terminals. Breaking the retainer off and taping the wire titghly on the bundle held it in place just fine. In hind sight, I should have take a closer look at the oem terminals and found something that resembled it more closely, which i'm sure would be no easy task! Anywho, here's what i used --> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000COBE5O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When buying the add-a-circuit for the DRLs, you must buy the correct size for our cars. I found out the hard way, assuming those tiny fuses in my box had to be mini. But my 2016 uses micro2 fuses, which are no where to be found local to me. I had never heard of them until i googles. Here's the Amazon link --> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083QN1RRB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1




This is how I wired up the DRLs. I used F26 as per the OPs instructions. The red wire is the add-a-circuit. Ignore the ballast in the background. But notice i have two wires mating to the red one. The black one being the 14 gauge i don't recommend you suffer through. In order to get this to work, i dug through my spare parts and found a coupler (the blue part) that can take a 12 gauge on one side and a 16 on the other. This way the added girth of the two wires wouldn't be an issue. To remove the existing coupler, i used a vice grip to squeeze it loose. I suspect that if you use 16 gauge you wouldn't have to replace the coupler.

You can also see where I looped and taped the wire as it leaves the headlight connector. I zip tied the black wire to the brake fluid pipe on the driver side and the AC condensor pipe on the passenger side. It passes directly over the intake corssover pipe. Then left about 8 inches of slack under the headlight so i can reposition the wire during my inevitable turbo upgrade


EDIT: Removed the 80mm dust cover as it's actually 76mm.

 

[LilPartyBox]

They offered me a 20% credit to shut up and drive. I asked them if that was 20% of the whole order or just the one headlight. One response per day so i won't hear back until Monday. If it's the whole order, i may take it. That would cover half of the cost of ordering a replacement.

In other news, the dust covers arrived. Turns out I measured the dust cover for the high beams. The low beam covers are smaller. I just ordered 76mm and returned the 80s as i don't need them. They arrive Monday.

UPDATE: The 76mm fit like a glove. The only issue is on the passenger side. No extended dust cover is going to fit comfortably on that side due to the coolant reservoir.

 

[PlatinumFiST]

Thanks to all of the advice in this thread I finally made it happen! I still may find time to wire in the LED strip for Hi/Low DRL but for now they are only on when the headlights are on and I'm okay with that. The only thing that bugs me is a slight flicker in the LEDs, which tells me that the source voltage probably isn't all that stable - here's to hoping it doesn't fluctuate enough to kill them.

I installed Hikari H1 and Cougar Motor H7 and then aimed them on a garage door - the manual adjustment was buttery smooth and neither were actually that far off from proper height.

This light output is so much better than factory halogens! I'm surprised I made it through all of those night drives with the stock lights.

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[TyphoonFiST]

Thanks to all of the advice in this thread I finally made it happen! I still may find time to wire in the LED strip for Hi/Low DRL but for now they are only on when the headlights are on and I'm okay with that. The only thing that bugs me is a slight flicker in the LEDs, which tells me that the source voltage probably isn't all that stable - here's to hoping it doesn't fluctuate enough to kill them.

I installed Hikari H1 and Cougar Motor H7 and then aimed them on a garage door - the manual adjustment was buttery smooth and neither were actually that far off from proper height.

This light output is so much better than factory halogens! I'm surprised I made it through all of those night drives with the stock lights.

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The Night time is the right time! The night time is the right time! For pics Of the cutoffs!

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[Ludeem1]

I just picked up the Depo ones. I will upgrade the fogs to the luxeon led. Well worth the investment I can’t wait to be able to see lol.

 

[LilPartyBox]

Congrats @PlatinumFiST ! My LED strips don't flicker at all. But then again I've done the wiring change so hopefully that's all you need to do. Which H1 bulb retainers did you end up with?

Some updates to report...

1. I haggled with Cars245 and got 26% of my order credited - $92 - i used it to order the replacement which arrived in perfect condition in 3 days. I am no longer using a zip ties to hold my passenger headlight quasi aligned. Now to find a good article on proper headlight alignment techniques. I would still say it was a so-so experience with Cars245. The order of events was...They offered 20%. I countered at 35%. They credited 26% without my approval and stopped communicating. At least i got something back. I plan to crack open the busted unit and glue the adjuster back on.

2. Due to the zip ties, i was running the passenger side without dust covers. The driver side had dust covers. I noticed that the driver side would get condensation in it but the passenger side never did. So I removed the dust covers from the driver side and viola, no condensation on that side either.

3. On a long drive to the city one night, my driver side LED went out. Flicking the switch on and off would get it back on but it would go out again in a few minutes. I suspected it was heat so I removed the dust cover and hung the mini ballast outside the headlight. The bulb stayed lit. I since moved the bulb over to the passenger side to see if the issue follows the bulb. It hasn't... yet. No dust covers on either headlight at this point.

Still VERY happy with the lights!