Changed out halogen for LED today

[Jreidg3]

I finally changed out the ugly halogens for LEDs on my 2018 limited today. So much cleaner looking and much more crisp going down the road at night. I used switchback bulbs for the fog lights. I had already used these on my Honda Pilot. They work great and are really distinct in rain/snow/fog. Fair warning that installing the switch back bulb on the drivers side fog light required me to pull back slightly on the metal bracket behind the bulb. Nothing major at all but you need just a smidge more room to sneak the bulb in. Install was super easy once I located my 5.5mm socket to remove the three wheel well screws to access all three bulbs. The high beam and low beam led ballasts were able to be tucked inside the headlight housing and reinstall the rubber dust cap. I looped the fog light led ballast around the fog light housing to shorten it up a little and keep it from banging around.

Products purchased on Amazon:
SEALIGHT 9005/HB3 H11/H9 14000LM LED Bulbs Combo Package CSP Chips 6000K Cool White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K438ZQ...abc_XR42QJR2ZXCECS6XG91C?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

ALLA Lighting H8 H9 H11 LED Switchback Fog Lights, High, Low Beam Conversion Kits, DRL, Dual Color 6000K White/3200K Yellow 12V H16 H8LL H11LL H965W, Extremely Super Bright 8000 Lumens https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KM3WTW...abc_94NVVJZGW8MJBV2GKGJ9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[apex96]

The high beam bulbs seem worse then the stock Philips halogen that came out… I may end up going back to a version of the Philips Halogen. I’m waiting on BriScource Lighting to get the newer Philips LED units back in stock to order those. Philips LEDs are pricey but it’s a brand I’ve come to trust…

Philips Ultinon Pro9000 - LED Forward Bulbs

With years of experience engineering the best LED fog light bulbs on the market, Philips have surpassed expectations yet again with their new Philips Ultinon Pro9000 LED bulbs. Up to 250% brighter light The Philips Ultinon Pro9000 is capable of producing masses of extra light, with a beam up to...

brisource.com

Philips Ultinon Pro9000 - LED Forward Bulbs

With years of experience engineering the best LED fog light bulbs on the market, Philips have surpassed expectations yet again with their new Philips Ultinon Pro9000 LED bulbs. Up to 250% brighter light The Philips Ultinon Pro9000 is capable of producing masses of extra light, with a beam up to...

brisource.com

 

[Bmanxx13]

Nice! Have you noticed any flicker? I have the headlight revolution sv.4 led lights and notice they flicker from time to time. Love them otherwise.

 

[apex96]

Nice! Have you noticed any flicker? I have the headlight revolution sv.4 led lights and notice they flicker from time to time. Love them otherwise.

The Sealight highs and fogs have not flickered yet. If you’re running an LED in your low beams and you have the DRLs on then it may flicker without an external driver device designed to mitigate the pulse wave and low voltage draw of the DLRs.

Once the Philips 9005 LEDs come in for the low beam projectors I’ll be able to give my take on their cost vs performance. GTR has higher lumen (light output) and Lux ( distance light is thrown) LED bulbs for roughly the same price but I feel it’s a trade off power vs usable light and longevity of the bulb components.

The Sealight X1 high beams appear to have a lower Lux output then the stock Philips H9s I pulled out. I’ll run them for a few weeks to get a feel for them. But I’m not overly impressed right now. Also the 6k color is to blue for good visibility needs to be be somewhere between 5k to 5500k for best usage.

The Sealight F2 fogs (H11s) appear to throw more usable light than the stock H8 halogens that we’re removed from the housings. For the price I’m liking them so far.

 

[kodigray2015]

I switched my halogen bulbs over to Lasfit LED bulbs for the HB3 (low) & H9 (highs) and love them. They are 6,000k and have a little bit more blue color to them than I really want but they work so much better than the stock crap. There is not a lot of options out there if any in the 5-5,000k range.

 

[Bmanxx13]

The Sealight highs and fogs have not flickered yet. If you’re running an LED in your low beams and you have the DRLs on then it may flicker without an external driver device designed to mitigate the pulse wave and low voltage draw of the DLRs.

Once the Philips 9005 LEDs come in for the low beam projectors I’ll be able to give my take on their cost vs performance. GTR has higher lumen (light output) and Lux ( distance light is thrown) LED bulbs for roughly the same price but I feel it’s a trade off power vs usable light and longevity of the bulb components.

The Sealight X1 high beams appear to have a lower Lux output then the stock Philips H9s I pulled out. I’ll run them for a few weeks to get a feel for them. But I’m not overly impressed right now. Also the 6k color is to blue for good visibility needs to be be somewhere between 5k to 5500k for best usage.

The Sealight F2 fogs (H11s) appear to throw more usable light than the stock H8 halogens that we’re removed from the housings. For the price I’m liking them so far.

Great response! I bought the headlight revolution LEDs to replace my low-beam and fog lights. It was night and day difference once I swapped them from the crappy halogen bulbs included. The LEDs provide so much light it’s insane.

I’m only disappointed that for how much I paid for the headlight revolution LEDs I would think they wouldn’t flicker. It’s not often, but when it happens it’s very noticeable because of how much light they output. Especially when the car turns on during auto start/stop.

I’ll take a look at the LEDs you mentioned.

 

[apex96]

So I got the new Philips 9005 lights in on Tuesday and installed them yesterday afternoon. They are very crisp with a nice white light and the cutoff is sharp... They suffer the same thing all LEDs in halogen reflectors do and that's the central dead spot in the middle but it's not noticeable while behind the wheel. The Philips do have an intermittent flicker and from the research I've done last night and this morning it may be due to the BCM sending a signal to check for a bulb outage. I also ordered new dust caps to properly encompass the bulb as the stock ones don't stick out far enough to seal properly. Ordered 83mm dome dust caps and they should be delivered on Monday.

I've ordered one of the OBD2 cables that is compatible with forscan and will be installing forscan this weekend. I'll go through some of the body control module codes that the F150 guys have changed to stop the flicker and see if that works.

 

[bullgator82]

I took the advice of several on this board and installed the 6k sealight highs and lows on my wife’s 2020 XLT max. Best investment I made for vehicle thus far other than weather-tech matt’s. ( have 4 little ones) color is more bluish white as others have stated but visibility is amazing. Have not seen a flicker yet. Amazon links are posted in thread I found in search.

 

[Bmanxx13]

So I got the new Philips 9005 lights in on Tuesday and installed them yesterday afternoon. They are very crisp with a nice white light and the cutoff is sharp... They suffer the same thing all LEDs in halogen reflectors do and that's the central dead spot in the middle but it's not noticeable while behind the wheel. The Philips do have an intermittent flicker and from the research I've done last night and this morning it may be due to the BCM sending a signal to check for a bulb outage. I also ordered new dust caps to properly encompass the bulb as the stock ones don't stick out far enough to seal properly. Ordered 83mm dome dust caps and they should be delivered on Monday.

I've ordered one of the OBD2 cables that is compatible with forscan and will be installing forscan this weekend. I'll go through some of the body control module codes that the F150 guys have changed to stop the flicker and see if that works.

Great! Let us know if changing the codes stops the flicker.

 

[sjwhiteley]

So I got the new Philips 9005 lights in on Tuesday and installed them yesterday afternoon. They are very crisp with a nice white light and the cutoff is sharp... They suffer the same thing all LEDs in halogen reflectors do and that's the central dead spot in the middle but it's not noticeable while behind the wheel. The Philips do have an intermittent flicker and from the research I've done last night and this morning it may be due to the BCM sending a signal to check for a bulb outage. I also ordered new dust caps to properly encompass the bulb as the stock ones don't stick out far enough to seal properly. Ordered 83mm dome dust caps and they should be delivered on Monday.

I've ordered one of the OBD2 cables that is compatible with forscan and will be installing forscan this weekend. I'll go through some of the body control module codes that the F150 guys have changed to stop the flicker and see if that works.

I notice this same flicker intermittently. It seems a bit distracting, so if you have the code to eliminate it, please post back either way.

 

[apex96]

I won't be able to test out until mid next week. Here are the addresses and values for the body control module to test, for those that can try it sooner. This all comes from the F150 forum and I believe a lot of the values will carry over to the expedition.

726-26-02 xxxx **** xxxx - Frequency Select Cfg: 0=Type 0 (LED), 1=Type 1 (Halogen), 2=Type 2, 3=Type 3

726-26-02 xxxx xxxx x*xx - Outage Headlamps Cfg: 0=none, 1=both, 2=high, 3=low

726-26-02 0000 xxxx xxxx - Front Light Outage Detection Disable when adding aftermarket LEDs/HIDs in Halogen Bucket

 

[NyackRob79]

Halogen reflectors are designed to focus and aim halogen filaments. LED filaments are much broader because LED capsules cannot emit that amount of light from such a small area. As such you end up with stupidly bright headlights that blind oncoming traffic.

Please don’t be that guy. Either invest and upgrade to OEM LED headlights or stay with your halogens.

 

[apex96]

Halogen reflectors are designed to focus and aim halogen filaments. LED filaments are much broader because LED capsules cannot emit that amount of light from such a small area. As such you end up with stupidly bright headlights that blind oncoming traffic.

Please don’t be that guy. Either invest and upgrade to OEM LED headlights or stay with your halogens.

Rob,

this has been discussed across many automotive forums before... Like you, I was originally against LED in halogen reflectors and projectors, but now technology has advanced to the point where that argument isn't valid anymore. It's true that there are awful and cheap LED lights out there that don't properly clock in at the 9 and 3 o'clock position, and their LED chips are poor quality and improperly placed on their boards... But this goes without saying, you get what you pay for. If Philips (my preferred brand) and OSRAM/Sylvania are manufacturing LED replacement lights for halogen reflector and projectors, you can be sure they've done their homework as they are the top two automotive lighting companies.

We as end users have to do our part to ensure our lights are aimed properly and they aren't scattering light in the wrong directions. Also make sure you don't buy the amazon specials... everyone should research their lights and make sure they're purchasing a good quality light from a reputable brand or retailer.

 

[apex96]

I won't be able to test out until mid next week. Here are the addresses and values for the body control module to test, for those that can try it sooner. This all comes from the F150 forum and I believe a lot of the values will carry over to the expedition.

726-26-02 xxxx **** xxxx - Frequency Select Cfg: 0=Type 0 (LED), 1=Type 1 (Halogen), 2=Type 2, 3=Type 3

726-26-02 xxxx xxxx x*xx - Outage Headlamps Cfg: 0=none, 1=both, 2=high, 3=low

726-26-02 0000 xxxx xxxx - Front Light Outage Detection Disable when adding aftermarket LEDs/HIDs in Halogen Bucket

A quick update on these changes. I made the code modifications this afternoon and on this evenings drive they appeared to remedy the flickering that we get from swapping LEDs in for the stock halogens. I'll update more later this week after I've logged more miles at night.

 

[apex96]

A quick update on these changes. I made the code modifications this afternoon and on this evenings drive they appeared to remedy the flickering that we get from swapping LEDs in for the stock halogens. I'll update more later this week after I've logged more miles at night.

I can confirm now that the changes do work, I have had zero flicker from the low beams since I changed the code to reflect use of LEDs and turned off the bulb out detection system. Only issues I've encountered are inferior fogs from Sealight, one is already failing. Swapped out the Sealight fogs for a better brand today and the fitment was night and day better, in the housing...

 

[sjwhiteley]

I can confirm now that the changes do work, I have had zero flicker from the low beams since I changed the code to reflect use of LEDs and turned off the bulb out detection system. Only issues I've encountered are inferior fogs from Sealight, one is already failing. Swapped out the Sealight fogs for a better brand today and the fitment was night and day better, in the housing...

Thanks for this update. I'll go ahead and do this once I can get my hands on a Windows laptop.

 

[apex96]

Thanks for this update. I'll go ahead and do this once I can get my hands on a Windows laptop.

reviewing my previous posts, I missed a few additional lines that you'll need to modify.

726-26-02	xxxx	****	xxxx	Frequency Select Cfg: 0=Type 0 (LED), 1=Type 1 (Halogen), 2=Type 2, 3=Type 3
726-26-02	xxxx	xxxx	x*xx	Outage Headlamps Cfg: 0=none, 1=both, 2=high, 3=low
726-27-01	0000	xxxx	xxxx	Front Light Outage Detection Disable when adding aftermarket LEDs/HIDs in Halogen Bucket

726-27-02	x*xx	xxxx	xxxx	ABM outage cfg: 1=outage, 0=no outage
726-27-02	****	xxxx	xxxx	Low Beam outage cfg: 1=outage, 0=no outage

 

[KSC 2019 XLT]

I can confirm now that the changes do work, I have had zero flicker from the low beams since I changed the code to reflect use of LEDs and turned off the bulb out detection system. Only issues I've encountered are inferior fogs from Sealight, one is already failing. Swapped out the Sealight fogs for a better brand today and the fitment was night and day better, in the housing...

apex96 - The flickering you refer to, can you provide more info. Are you referring to the minor flickering that occurs every once in awhile and lasts for a tiny small fraction of a second or the flickering that occurs when the engine powers back up with the auto on/off at a stop. Also what Sealight did you have? I have the Sealight Xenower XF1 on my 2019 Expy and so far so good.

 

[keny01998]

I swapped out my halogen bulbs with the LED from amazon and they are still going strong over 2 years. You need to buy a longer rubber covers to allow heat extraction.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

 

[apex96]

apex96 - The flickering you refer to, can you provide more info. Are you referring to the minor flickering that occurs every once in awhile and lasts for a tiny small fraction of a second or the flickering that occurs when the engine powers back up with the auto on/off at a stop. Also what Sealight did you have? I have the Sealight Xenower XF1 on my 2019 Expy and so far so good.

The flickering many of us have experienced is during normal driving conditions, not related to the stop-start function. The BCM has a bulb out detection feature which pulses a signal to the bull every so many seconds/minutes that results in a very quick flicker of the LEDs.

I was running Sealight F2 H11s in my fogs and Sealight X1 H8/H9 highs. I'm currently Running Philips Ultinon Pro9000 9005/HB3 lows and Philips X-treme Vision H8 fogs.