Headlight weirdness

[Mike Wolfe]

I have not installed them yet so can't tell if the cutoff is higher or not
Probably will have them installed in a couple days
Hoping it will help
Will let you know

 

[Markg2]

Good luck, but I can't believe the cutoff will be any higher since the cutoff is dictated by a mechanical deflector in the housing.

 

[Mike Wolfe]

Maybe the deflector could be modified. Have not looked inside the housing. Has anyone else considered this as an option

 

[Uturn]

I not sure about modifying the reflector. I had to take my wife to the airport 60 miles away at 2:30am yesterday, so I got to try out the LED high beams. Definately bright, even though I bought the Auxbeam's which have a lower lumen rating, but they are DOT compliant. Markg2, I noticed that my cutoff is set higher than yours so I am wondering how they set your lights being you said they removed the bumper. You might consider playing with the adjustment yourself to gain a little more height.

 

[Markg2]

The first service, after adjusting to spec, they raised the cutoff as much as they could. No perceptible difference once home. The second service, when they re-seated the housings and installed better bulbs, they set the adjustment back to spec--still no difference. Since all my posted images were taken on varying degrees of downslope, the cutoff has to be (much) lower. That's what makes a bad low beam really bad.

 

[Dscustoms]

Before swapping to LED bulbs (or after), if you have a problem with the quality of the lights be sure to tell your dealer that they are not bright enough. Make them work on it, adjust it, whatever. Then tell them that it still isn’t acceptable at night. Then put in your led bulbs. We need a history of complaints with ford and nhtsa for anything to ever be done.
The cutoff is the same with aftermarket leds but they are much brighter to start with so it’s better.

As for someone with factory leds not happy with the brightness, there is no upgrade option, you can’t just swap bulbs on those, it’s an entire module.

 

[Markg2]

Whoa, are you saying that the factory LED low beam (Expedition Platinum) also is a projector type with the hard horizontal cutoff? I could have sworn that I saw an image posted here of someone's Platinum LED's at night and there was no horizontal cutoff.

If you attempted to swap the halogen for the LED, it's not just the complete housings but also some chunk of the wiring harness + some other undefined hardware in back of the housing + possibly a software change. All of which the dealer will not do since they do not know how and Ford will not advise.

 

[EricExpedition]

Plan to install these this evening. I will post pics with new bulbs on just the passenger side to see the difference. As stated above, I don't anticipate that these will solve the cutoff issue, but it will make the area up to the cutoff significantly brighter.

Side note: I have Bilstein 5100 shocks on my 2013 F150 with projector headlights. They raise the front end 2" and while I may be use to the cutoff, I never recall it being a problemwith visibility. Installing the ReadyLift 3"F/2"R SST for the Expedition with larger tires in the future. Point being, even a 1.5" leveling kit may help alleviate some of the issue. Just my experience.

 

[EricExpedition]

Storm came in so I had to work quickly so I didn' get as many great pics. Lights are an EASY swap! Took me 30 min to do fogs, highs, and lows by accessing through the fender wall. Interesting that stock halogen bulb creates spot below the cutoff where the LEDseems to diffuse the light much better. Last pic is for accessing the DRL - just pop the cover over the grille off and Ford even included a handle/lever to take the bulbs out as it is a small gap to get to. Need different bulbs though. D'oh. Think its 3157?

 

[Markg2]

Can you shoot some images at night through the windshield so we can really see the impact?