new headlights

[standardmoose]

hello all,
i just got my expedition the other week and am starting to look around for some easy mods.

i have a 2008 expedition xlt, second hand with about 30,000 miles on it and its and ex avis chauffeur car, so was maintained by the dealer, and its pretty good condition.

any ways first mod i want to do is replace the head lights, as one needs replacing as the plastic has cracked under the heat.

im looking at the 2 following lights, which as far as i can see are both the same just 10$ difference. has any one had any experience with these brands or actually lights?

SPEC-D® - Ford Expedition 2007-2008 Black Dual CCFL Halo Projector Headlights with LEDs

CG® - Ford Expedition 2007-2011 Black Projector Headlights with LEDs, Amber Reflectors

any help/ advice / input would be much appreciated

cheers

phill

 

[Captain Morgan]

Either of those will do, I would look for a better price.

Are you currently in Bahrain? You might consider buying a protective film for this investment to keep them from getting hazy due to heat and sand.


.

 

[standardmoose]

thanks, ive been looking around and i found another identical looking set for $100 cheaper 2008 Ford Expedition Headlights |2008 Ford Expedition LED Headlights |2008 Ford Expedition Projector Headlights Free Shipping!.

but this may sound stupid but would i need to HID's with them and also what actually are HID's lol this is the first time im going to mod my own car, as before i have just helped ppl with their cars.

yeah im out here and drive to saudi as well, so get alot of sand blast and stuff, im having the whole car wrapped in vinyl to try and protect the paint from sand. but i yeah will definately be gettin the lights covered espicially if i end up spending that much money on them.

thanks for the reply

phill

 

[standardmoose]

just found these 07 09 Ford Expedition Dual Twin CCFL Halo Projector LED Black Headlights Lamps | eBay good old ebay lol

they seem pretty much the same

 

[JTKustoms]

If you're interested in HIDs then it seems to me that you will need to buy them separately. HIDs are basically just a much brighter bulb that uses a different gas inside, somebody else can probably give a more technical explanation. But before ordering HIDs I'd suggest looking into if these new lights can handle them first. My friend got aftermarket projectors for his f150 and they had warning stickers saying hids would melt them

 

[GAINMOB]

i had a pair that said the samething and nothing happened to them...never felt any heat on the lense either...i even called the manufacturer too...

 

[Captain Morgan]

Supposing you melted the lens, you could man up and buy a real projector to put in it's place.

The ebay one's are cheaper for a reason. But if you met them you haven't lost much money.


.

 

[Thermo]

Ok, I am going to give a quick run down of the difference between halogen bulbs and HID bulbs. They have a large (relatively speaking) bulb that is filled with a halogen gas (argon, neon, etc) with a thin wire inside the bulb being surrounded by the gas. As power is applied, the wire converts the power into heat, causing the metal to reach a point just below melting. This heat causes the metal wire to emit a white light. The halogen gas is there only to prevent oxygen from reaching the metal, causing it to corrode at an extreme rate, leading to its failure.

As for HIDs. You have a small glass bulb (sometimes surrounded by a much bigger bulb) with electrodes on each side (with a small gap between the two electrodes). This small bulb is normally filled with xenon gas (another halogen gas). A very high voltage (around the lines of 23,000 volts) is applied to the electrodes and this causes an arc to jump from 1 electrode to the other (miniature lightning in short, can also think of it like your spark plug). Once an arc is started, the voltage can be dropped to around 85 VDC to maintain the arc. As the xenon gas is struck by the arc, the gas gets excited and moves out of the arc. This allows the gas to become stable again, causing it to emit light.

Most people get the idea that HID lights are much brighter than halogen bulbs (true statement). The thing that most people do not understand though is a 55W halogen bulb emits about 1300 lumen of light (a measure of the amount of light) where a 35W HID bulb (using 4300K temp bulb as the light intensity varies with the temperature selected) emits 3300 lumen of light. So, a bulb that is about 60% as powerful, emits 2.5 times the light. It is a much more efficient style of lighting.

So, when you start looking at HID bulbs/kits, you do not need the 50W HID kits like a lot of people make you think you do. You only need the 35W kits. Atleast here in the US, installing the 50W HID kits is actually illegal because you are putting out too much light (in the neighborhood of 4500 lumen, or like driving around with 8 high beam headlights on). Not sure about you, but that would really piss me off. With the headlight housings that you are looking at, you can mount 35W HIDs in your low beam housings for normal driving and then mount 50W HIDs in your high beams for when you are the only one out on the back roads and you need the additional light (this is what I am contemplating doing on my Jaguar).

Now, with all this, HIDs is sounding pretty nice. There is a down side. When HIDs start, they pull some serious power. A halogen bulb pulls 5 amps on start up. A HID bulb pulls about 20 amps. Once up and running the HID bulb will drop to around 3.5 amps (where the halogen bulb remains up at around 4.5 amps). If you do not add additional wiring to the truck, you are going to damage the headlight switch more than likely. The headlight switch will hack it for awhile, but it will cause it to fail in about a year or so. If you get the 50W HIDs, each bulb pulls 30 amps on start up.

If you need more info, let me know. As you can see, I know a thing or two about the HID bulbs and I have only begun to scratch the surface of what I know.

 

[JTKustoms]

^ told ya someone would give you a good technical explanation lol. That was the best explanation I've ever heard

 

[GAINMOB]

i didnt even read it cuz thermo always give the run down...lol...he's always on point with the electrical...hmmmmmm...wonder why...lol

 

[standardmoose]

Ok, I am going to give a quick run down of the difference between halogen bulbs and HID bulbs. They have a large (relatively speaking) bulb that is filled with a halogen gas (argon, neon, etc) with a thin wire inside the bulb being surrounded by the gas. As power is applied, the wire converts the power into heat, causing the metal to reach a point just below melting. This heat causes the metal wire to emit a white light. The halogen gas is there only to prevent oxygen from reaching the metal, causing it to corrode at an extreme rate, leading to its failure.

As for HIDs. You have a small glass bulb (sometimes surrounded by a much bigger bulb) with electrodes on each side (with a small gap between the two electrodes). This small bulb is normally filled with xenon gas (another halogen gas). A very high voltage (around the lines of 23,000 volts) is applied to the electrodes and this causes an arc to jump from 1 electrode to the other (miniature lightning in short, can also think of it like your spark plug). Once an arc is started, the voltage can be dropped to around 85 VDC to maintain the arc. As the xenon gas is struck by the arc, the gas gets excited and moves out of the arc. This allows the gas to become stable again, causing it to emit light.

Most people get the idea that HID lights are much brighter than halogen bulbs (true statement). The thing that most people do not understand though is a 55W halogen bulb emits about 1300 lumen of light (a measure of the amount of light) where a 35W HID bulb (using 4300K temp bulb as the light intensity varies with the temperature selected) emits 3300 lumen of light. So, a bulb that is about 60% as powerful, emits 2.5 times the light. It is a much more efficient style of lighting.

So, when you start looking at HID bulbs/kits, you do not need the 50W HID kits like a lot of people make you think you do. You only need the 35W kits. Atleast here in the US, installing the 50W HID kits is actually illegal because you are putting out too much light (in the neighborhood of 4500 lumen, or like driving around with 8 high beam headlights on). Not sure about you, but that would really piss me off. With the headlight housings that you are looking at, you can mount 35W HIDs in your low beam housings for normal driving and then mount 50W HIDs in your high beams for when you are the only one out on the back roads and you need the additional light (this is what I am contemplating doing on my Jaguar).

Now, with all this, HIDs is sounding pretty nice. There is a down side. When HIDs start, they pull some serious power. A halogen bulb pulls 5 amps on start up. A HID bulb pulls about 20 amps. Once up and running the HID bulb will drop to around 3.5 amps (where the halogen bulb remains up at around 4.5 amps). If you do not add additional wiring to the truck, you are going to damage the headlight switch more than likely. The headlight switch will hack it for awhile, but it will cause it to fail in about a year or so. If you get the 50W HIDs, each bulb pulls 30 amps on start up.

If you need more info, let me know. As you can see, I know a thing or two about the HID bulbs and I have only begun to scratch the surface of what I know.

wow, thanks for the reply, i actually understand the difference now lol
i did find one site which had the lights with just the angel eyes and no HIDs, which were cheaper but obviously cos they didnt have the HIDs, so i think i might buy them and take your advise on just going with the lower power ones for normal driving.

the one thing which i did get worried about was the blinding people on the roads, as im in the middle east there is no law about how bright your lights are, but when i was back in the uk they have the same law as the states as your not allowed lights that are of a certain brightness. but did have my high beams on the other day and forgot then some one started flashing me but as your so high up in the expo i didnt realised they were high beaming me back lol

thanks for the reply mate

 

[Thermo]

Freeway, what are you trying to say, huh? Imagine, I have a lot more in my "bag of tricks" when it comes to this stuff. Gotta love a company that sends you to training on lighting and thermal cameras. The things you can learn if you simply pay attention.

Moose, if you need any help, just hollar. As most of the guys here will tell you, I will bend over backwards to help you get what you need. In your case, what you may find of interest is to get a set of "driving lights" and mount them to the front of your truck. You can find some nice 6-8" (15-20 CM) lights that have a deeper backing to them that you can mount to the front of your truck. Then, you can mount some 50 or 80 watt HIDs in those. Then, when you are in say England and you need to keep your lighting to "reasonable" standards, you just use your headlight switch. When you are back home in the middle east, you can flip a switch and use the aftermarket lights. You get some 80 watt HIDs with a spot/pencil beam lens on the front, you will light up the world a mile away and it will give you a nice beam that will run out the front of your truck to remind you that you have those lights on (imagine something like a spot light shining up into the sky, that will be coming out the front of your truck).

 

[standardmoose]

thanks thermo, the expo will just be stayin in the middle east so luckily i dont have to worry to much about the lighting as, when it comes around for its registration each year, they never check the lights, all they check is the horn (if its working or not) and if it looks like it is gonna to fall to pieces lol

im thinking of just going with angel eyes and then buying the separate HID's and running them as standard, but the lower powered ones, so that i have better illumination than present but not were i gonna be blinding all the little cars on the road lol

but thanks for all the help, if its ok before could i just run everything past you before i order stuff to make sure it would all work etc?

cheers

 

[Thermo]

Moose, write away. As the other members here will attest to, I am always getting questions and will assist however I can. I am a firm believer in the "Pay It Forward" concept. Besides, it is much easier to ask questions now than to order stuff, find out it doesn't do what you want or you don't know how to wire it up and then have to fight to get things to work again.

 

[GAINMOB]

Freeway, what are you trying to say, huh? Imagine, I have a lot more in my "bag of tricks" when it comes to this stuff. Gotta love a company that sends you to training on lighting and thermal cameras. The things you can learn if you simply pay attention.

im saying that once you get on and give the advice...there no need for anyone to say anything further due to the in-depth detail that you give being youre an E/E guy...if there are any questions after your breakdown of anything electrical then they just need to pay someone to do it of just forget about it..lol wasnt a diss

 

[Thermo]

Freeway, I never took it as a diss to me. You all know that I give small class sessions when asked a question like that. Just flipping a little "stuff" back to have fun on the forums. Guess I should have added a "LOL" or "LMAO" on the end.