INSTALL GUIDE: European headlight installation with LED headlight bulbs and LED running light wiring

[OffTheWall503]

Ding ding ding! Sorry I didn't respond sooner.

 

[pleaseyesplease]

7mm! Oops, sorry. I was recalling the horizontal adjuster which is a 6mm. Thank you for the correction!

 

[jtm787]

Excelent job love it but for anyone else doing the proyect u dont need to swap the cables just download the forscan program and make the special cable with the hi and lo can and u can reprogram the car for the projector head lamp and a lot more of mods u can even get rid of the speed limiter on the car...

 

[OffTheWall503]

Now THAT is cool. I didn't know that.

 

[CarGuy]

Excelent job love it but for anyone else doing the proyect u dont need to swap the cables just download the forscan program and make the special cable with the hi and lo can and u can reprogram the car for the projector head lamp and a lot more of mods u can even get rid of the speed limiter on the car...

Do you have the FORScan codes we need to change for this?

 

[kansei]

I gave in and after driving an ecoboost mustang (standard bi-xenon projectors, LED fog lights, etc) for a week on vacation I ordered these headlamps. Now I just need to figure out what HID parts I want.

we shall see just how bad the chrome housing looks on MO with bronze wheels

 

[pleaseyesplease]

It should look really good, and I'd love to see it when you've got them installed. I have an MO with the euro-spec headlights as well. I love the look overall, but it should absolutely have a black trim and bezel. The chrome is bothersome, I'd love to black out the bezel, but it's hard to justify the cost, risk of damaging the something just for that when I'm so happy with everything else about them...

I gave in and after driving an ecoboost mustang (standard bi-xenon projectors, LED fog lights, etc) for a week on vacation I ordered these headlamps. Now I just need to figure out what HID parts I want.

we shall see just how bad the chrome housing looks on MO with bronze wheels

 

[kansei]

It should look really good, and I'd love to see it when you've got them installed. I have an MO with the euro-spec headlights as well. I love the look overall, but it should absolutely have a black trim and bezel. The chrome is bothersome, I'd love to black out the bezel, but it's hard to justify the cost, risk of damaging the something just for that when I'm so happy with everything else about them...

your photo in this thread sold me on the headlamps! Your car looks great, but the silver wheels definitely help there. I've thought about sending the headlights out to a retrofit place to black out the housing and retrofit in a proper HID projector but then we're quickly approaching really wasteful spending territory heh

 

[kansei]

So is everyone here rocking the one wire mod with the LEDs acting as parking lights? Or has someone maybe experimented with getting them to function as DRLs?

oh and pic, without the LED strip for now

 

[pleaseyesplease]

Kansei,

Looks great! Ridiculously easy, huh?

I'm running that same one wire mod. I'd love to have real DRL functionality, but this way keeps things so simple I decided not to fight it

I'd be interested to know what you do if you pursue real DRL though...

Also, how do you feel about the yellow fogs with those headlights as far as color mix between them? And did you use the Ford low beam bulbs that shipped with the lights or did you switch to something else for your low beams?

 

[OffTheWall503]

Yeah I'm not a fan of DRLs personally, I just prefer to have the LED strips act as running lights.

Those headlights look great on your car [MENTION=6204]kansei[/MENTION].

 

[parapraxis24]

So is everyone here rocking the one wire mod with the LEDs acting as parking lights? Or has someone maybe experimented with getting them to function as DRLs?

oh and pic, without the LED strip for now

There is a write-up on here somewhere if you search for it that show how to get the LEDs to run as DRLs. Basically you tap into a wire that is hot once the ignition is on, fuel pump for instance. It's fairly simple.

 

[OffTheWall503]

Wiring them up as DRLs would significantly shorten their lifespan due to being on all the time. If you were to do that, I'd rather wire them up to a switch, but at that point it's no different than wiring them up as the running lights like I did.

 

[kansei]

not too worried about the lifespan of some LEDs when that's how Ford runs them in the european cars.

One difference is that the tail lamps and I suspect most of the interior lighting is not on in the DRL mode. Plus I imagine the DRL turns off when the turn signal is in use (i've seen this on the latest Focus with the LED strip). I'm definitely going to do the 1 wire mod to run them as parking lights for now, but maybe when it warms up a bit I'll sit down with a multimeter and forscan to flesh this idea out.

 

[OffTheWall503]

I just mean that for $600 headlights that aren't very easy to obtain, I'd hate it if one of the LEDs were to burn out eventually.

 

[pleaseyesplease]

I'd hate it if one burned out too - but the DRL LEDs were one of the main reasons I bought them, aside from the improved low beam projector performance. Personally, I have the LEDs on most of the time.

 

[kansei]

Also, how do you feel about the yellow fogs with those headlights as far as color mix between them? And did you use the Ford low beam bulbs that shipped with the lights or did you switch to something else for your low beams?

tossed the stock bulbs immediately, I'm running philips x-treme vision which i had in my USDM lights too. Lighting performance is so much better now that i'm not even going to bother with HIDs (which is good since xenon supply seems to be out of business or is at least closed for an extended period of time). As for the yellow fog lights, I don't actually drive with fog lights on since it's not usually foggy and that's just added glare for other motorists. I like the contrast of the yellow for photos though. I thought the halogen low beam bulbs might not look great next to the cold white LED strip but it turns out that looks fine too. I'm content with the 1-wire mod for now. Thanks again for this writeup offthewall503, made it such a quick and easy job today.

 

[kansei]

Ordered some of the kinda chromed bulbs for the turn signals. I'm not about to say orange lights look bad on an orange car but I do think it'll clean up the look as Tuxblack15 has shown us on their car.

http://store.candlepower.com/7507dla.html

off topic but they have a similar bulb available with fitment for our rear turn signal as well.

I used the car a bit today, more than I have since I bought it actually (went like 30 miles!) and I have to say, these headlamps are my absolute favorite mod. Every time I look at my car they make me happy. I was so hesitant at first because of the chrome housing but I find I like the look more and more. Something about the headlamps being the eyes of the car and it looking more alert now, a bit less aggressive looking perhaps.

Thanks so much for putting all the info together and creating this guide offthewall503

 

[pleaseyesplease]

I've been toying with the idea of a silvery bulb. These at the link are the correct bulb (BAU15s) to replace the blinker bulb in the Euro-Spec headlight?

Please post pics when you install them!

Ordered some of the kinda chromed bulbs for the turn signals. I'm not about to say orange lights look bad on an orange car but I do think it'll clean up the look as Tuxblack15 has shown us on their car.

http://store.candlepower.com/7507dla.html

off topic but they have a similar bulb available with fitment for our rear turn signal as well.

I used the car a bit today, more than I have since I bought it actually (went like 30 miles!) and I have to say, these headlamps are my absolute favorite mod. Every time I look at my car they make me happy. I was so hesitant at first because of the chrome housing but I find I like the look more and more. Something about the headlamps being the eyes of the car and it looking more alert now, a bit less aggressive looking perhaps.

Thanks so much for putting all the info together and creating this guide offthewall503

 

[kansei]

I've been toying with the idea of a silvery bulb. These at the link are the correct bulb (BAU15s) to replace the blinker bulb in the Euro-Spec headlight?

Please post pics when you install them!

Will do on the pic front. I'll know 100% for sure by the end of the week or so when they arrive. They list it as a replacement for PY21W which is what the original turn signal bulb in the euro headlight was.