Blinding others with my SL-1 LED Headlamp bulbs

[Cyclone]

I got my 2015 XLT in June. The halogens were dim and I was often seeing my Trucks shadow in front of me when I was backlit by some car with LED lights following behind me. I decided to get some LED bulbs myself and spend the $150 on the Diode Dynamics SL-1 Bulbs. The installed easily and worked right out of the game (once you figured out the polarity).

So I've had these installed for about a month and while they are working great, I have a problem. I'm blinding everyone on the road. Popping the head light Assembly in and out is so easy its trivial. But I see that my 'aim' is just a bit too high and to the left (in other words right into the eyes of oncoming drivers). Also when following behind other cars, I fully light up their interiors. I often see people grab for the 'night' switch on their review mirrors as I roll up on them.

I have gone from being very pleased with my night illumination to self-conscious and guilty. I now hang back further from other cars and pretty much have several oncoming cars 'flash' me. I know for each one that does, that most others are also cursing my lights.

One of my main problem is that my lights are noticeably projecting high. Much higher than they need to be. Not sure if it was always that way with Halogens and were just too dim to be an issue, or if my removal and reinstall of the headlamp assembly knocked everything out of calibration, or if the LED bulbs just changed the aim.

So last night I decided to try to aim these things lower. I see an adjustment screw on the back of the assembly, so I put a phillips in there and turn. I had pulled up to the garage door and as I turned the aim of the lamp didn't change. It really didn't seem to change much or at all. I drove the truck around the block and noticed that the aim was no even higher! So at least I know it can change. I returned adjusted some more and tried to push the assembly in more at the bottom. I was able to get the focus to lower some, but it is really at where I started.

My question is how to I effectly aim this headlamp assembly? That screw adjuster really doesn't seem to steer the main bulb, or reflector, so I'm not sure what I doing when I use that. Any tips would be helpful.

Don

 

[IIGood]

Are you using the factory headlamp housing? If so, that's likely the problem. You'd probably need to find a set of projector housings for the LED bulbs...people often overlook that, stick an LED bulb in the stock reflector housing, and that just ends up scattering the LED's light causing the blinding of oncoming vehicles.

 

[Cyclone]

Yep, I am using the factory housing.

 

[JExpedition07]

I don’t know how or why ford screwed up the halogen headlights on the 15-17 trucks. How do you screw up a headlight? The 07-14 headlights are a lot better at night, all I can guess is that the headlamp assemblies appear to be quite a bit larger on the 07-14s. The 18’s with halogens are bad too, but the stock LEDs work well. Maybe they are making them for one style bulb and being lazy with throwing halogens in anything.

 

[Langer]

@Cyclone I got my 2017XLT in January and was immediately disappointed by the dim headlights as well. I replaced with these: NINEO H11 H8 H9 LED Headlight Bulbs CREE Chips,12000Lm 5090Lux 6500K Extremely Bright All-in-One Conversion Kit,360 Degree Adjustable Beam Angle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MDOWGY3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qcsXDbP6CN8ZK

I have the standard headlamp housing and didn’t have to adjust a thing. Maybe I just lucked into it. My left lamp is even a cut lower which again, may just be luck, but seems perfect for not blinding oncoming traffic, while the right is a tad higher and also not showing up in the driver’s rear view mirror. I’m super happy with them.
Side note, I got these for the high beams as the standard fan setup won’t work in the housing:
SEALIGHT 9005 HB3 LED Headlight Bulbs High Beam 1 by 1 Mini Design with Fan S2 Series CSP Chips 7600LM 6000K Cool White IP67 Waterproof https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HCZ4VCH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VesXDbRPGABAC

I know that’s not super helpful to tell you to buy another product after you’ve dumped a fair amount of cash into the ones you have, but mine are great.

 

[jeff kushner]

Double-check, then triple check the seating of the bulbs. I had seating issues too. I tried a couple of the LED's and quickly learned that the manual was wrong and had "switched" sizes or "H#"s in the manual. They were cheap to try and worked fairly well. Then I tried the nicer/expensive LEDs but once seated correctly, had no issue blinding others.



Then I used the HID version from Diode (I think)and am good to go. They project a clearly defined cutoff line that is easy to adjust.

jeff

 

[Black]

I have LEDs in my no projector housings and no issues.
I lowered the aim slightly when I leveled the truck.

The adjustment screws seemed like I turned it 100 times to drop it a millimeter.

Also make sure your headlights are fully seated after the reinstall.

 

[Cyclone]

yeah, press hard on them, especially the bottm to make sure it was fully seated. I will have to check of those pegs can be adjusted at all. I'm stil at a loss as to what that adjustment screw manipulates. It seems to not be directly controlling any bulbs or the housing itself.

 

[762mm]

I read somewhere that the adjustment is only for minor tweaking after collision and repair.

If it bothers you so much, you can always go for a cheaper, less potent Amazon kit... or simply change your truck's gender and tell the cop that your Expy now self-identifies as a "light beacon". I'm told this works in some places, like Kommiefornia.

 

[Michael Shepherd]

The adjustment screws seemed like I turned it 100 times to drop it a millimeter.

Will second this as well. When I installed the SL1's on our 17' Limited, the #2 Phillips did not really mesh very well with the lobes of the adjuster, so I used a larger Phillips (#3?) and it took less than 10 turns to produce a noticeable drop in the beam.