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Auxbeam LED bulbs

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H9 are brighter... but they are also hotter than oem... So you'll most likely melt your housing. I've personally known 2 people that tried it already on their FiST and their housing got cloudy/marred from the inside. YMMV.

LED's (and HIDs) are for projectors. I think I've mentioned it in this thread already... There's no way around it, even if people try to make claims they work.
USDM got reflectors, it's the wrong tech for LED's. We can't just mix and match to our liking if we want proper output.

Gotta get the right tech. Swap in Euro headlights with projectors.
That is going to be the game plan eventually, I either want a retro fit or euro style housing. If I could get the LED to not cause dangerous glare or scatter light, which I managed for now, I was just using them temporarily until funds for the Euro lights were available.
 


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H9 are brighter... but they are also hotter than oem... So you'll most likely melt your housing. I've personally known 2 people that tried it already on their FiST and their housing got cloudy/marred from the inside. YMMV.

LED's (and HIDs) are for projectors. I think I've mentioned it in this thread already... There's no way around it, even if people try to make claims they work.
USDM got reflectors, it's the wrong tech for LED's. We can't just mix and match to our liking if we want proper output.

Gotta get the right tech. Swap in Euro headlights with projectors.
I used H9 for 2 years with absolutely no damage. Heat is not an issue. Their housing did not get compromised due to physical temperature as the headlights bulbs do not create enough heat to actually do that. UV light can do that, usually from using cheap HID kits.

Just to be clear, Euro headlights using the correct halogen bulb are not an intensity improvement over the USDM using an h9 bulb. They are not very bright. My current setup is retrofitted USDM with Corolla/Murano LED projectors with clear lens upgrade. This is not a bright setup (OEM Corolla/Murano led are still behind 35w HID) compared to what I am used to. I also have Euro headlights that will be retrofitted with HID projectors so I have tested this. Stock Euro just looks nicer, but does not improve road lighting (over usdm+h9).

Comparison of my LED projector vs Euro (because we love pics :) )



 


AzNightmare

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I used H9 for 2 years with absolutely no damage. Heat is not an issue. Their housing did not get compromised due to physical temperature as the headlights bulbs do not create enough heat to actually do that. UV light can do that, usually from using cheap HID kits.

Just to be clear, Euro headlights using the correct halogen bulb are not an intensity improvement over the USDM using an h9 bulb. They are not very bright. My current setup is retrofitted USDM with Corolla/Murano LED projectors with clear lens upgrade. This is not a bright setup (OEM Corolla/Murano led are still behind 35w HID) compared to what I am used to. I also have Euro headlights that will be retrofitted with HID projectors so I have tested this. Stock Euro just looks nicer, but does not improve road lighting (over usdm+h9).

Comparison of my LED projector vs Euro (because we love pics :) )



I guess YMMV. I've known people who have compromised their headlight housing. Overall, H9's are a potential risk so buyer beware. Which H9's are you using? Maybe you got lucky and got good ones that seem to work fine.

And to clarify, halogens will never be brighter than LEDs or HIDs. The point of switching to Euro headlights is because they come with projectors lens which then enables you to swap in LED's or HID's without having scatter issues (that USDM reflectors have). The projectors itself has nothing to do with improving intensity... That's why your H9 in USDM is outputting more light than a Euro spec with H11. That's just simply H9 being more intense bulbs than H11's.

I'm a bit confused on what you mean by retrofitting your euro headlights with HID projectors. The Euro headlights already have projectors... they don't need to be retrofitted.

Where does the ballast goes when installing these in the fog lights ?

Just curious . Thanks
Just leave them hanging somewhere. Or zip tie it somewhere in the car to secure it.
 


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I guess YMMV. I've known people who have compromised their headlight housing. Overall, H9's are a potential risk so buyer beware. Which H9's are you using? Maybe you got lucky and got good ones that seem to work fine.

And to clarify, halogens will never be brighter than LEDs or HIDs. The point of switching to Euro headlights is because they come with projectors lens which then enables you to swap in LED's or HID's without having scatter issues (that USDM reflectors have). The projectors itself has nothing to do with improving intensity... That's why your H9 in USDM is outputting more light than a Euro spec with H11. That's just simply H9 being more intense bulbs than H11's.

I'm a bit confused on what you mean by retrofitting your euro headlights with HID projectors. The Euro headlights already have projectors... they don't need to be retrofitted.
Standard Philips h9. Fair enough, maybe some people have had issues.


I haven't suggested that halogen is brighter than led/hid (oem). That said, an led bulb in a halogen reflector housing like the fiesta is usually much dimmer even though the rated output is much higher because the reflector cannot gather and direct the light properly. If you measure lux at 100-200 feet you will see this. It might be far brighter at 5 or 10 feet but this is a useless test.

You are incorrect about the projector having nothing to do with intensity (btw euro lights use h7) It has everything to do with how the beam is developed. They are designed specifically for each car / truck and the required beam pattern. Some are wider, have more or less foreground due to the vehicles ride height and intended use, some are better at distance. It is all about how the beam is gathered and projected down the road and is a direct result of the projector bowl, lens type, shield, and finally which bulb is used. Halogen projectors and hid projectors are different and give different performance and an hid in a halogen projector does not perform as well as it could. Case in point a subaru wrx h11 halogen projector headlight is very similar to an rx350 hid projector and while it does benefit from an hid kit being added it cannot compare to an hid projector.

This is why you should still retrofit the euro headlights if you want to use hid (not led because they are still junk unless you retrofit an led projector!). Another reason for retrofit is that you can only get crappy bulbs because the only true hid oem manufactured bulbs are d2/d3/d4 based. H7 rebased bulbs almost always have issues because they are never aligned perfectly which affects the hotspot and creates drastic LUX differences.

In my case I will be using the morimoto 4tl-r projector with philips xtreme vision d2s bulbs and 50w ballasts. I have a similar setup on my Subaru (except with xtreme Ultinon bulbs) and is a distance champ. They are not very wide but that was not my intention and if it was, there are better projectors for width but at a sacrifice of distance intensity.





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neeqness

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I also like the phillips extreme vision for my FiST but I use the h11. Worked fine for me...although brighter than oem, it is not super white or super bright yet on road trips it lit up those unlit dark back roads so I could see quite effectively and shot the light much further ahead to help instill confidence at night through the curves...

...and that was all I really needed. Personally, I would rather not significantly modify the headlamp and other related fixtures.

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zanethan

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After spending the better part of the weekend trying to make glare guards, there is no way to get these down to an acceptable glare level. I could reduce the glare but the cutoffs still sucked, that coupled with the fact that mine started flickering like a mofo I've given up on them.

I went with the ZXE bulbs, I don't think they're worth the price but they are slightly whiter than the stockers.
 


Last edited:
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Location
College Station
So I got some of these AUXBEAM LEDs for my 2017 FiST. And I ran into some issues installing them.

1) The passenger side Low Beam light would not fit into the shroud even after adjusting the reflector. I had to melt the plastic (housing) slightly with a soldering iron (no dremmel available) to get it to fit. The fan housing on the LED bulb was a bit to large to get into the housing opening. But I eventually got it. NO issues installing the driver side light.
2)I also got the High Beam LEDs (H1) size as mentioned earlier in this post. However, I do not see any way of actually mounting and or plugging in an H1 bulb into the cars existing wiring. Unless there is a plug hiding somewhere in the shroud which I doubt. Anyone else have this issue with the 2017 FiST? Could the '17 model possibly have a different size plug requirement for the High Beams?
 


KKaWing

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So I got some of these AUXBEAM LEDs for my 2017 FiST. And I ran into some issues installing them.

1) The passenger side Low Beam light would not fit into the shroud even after adjusting the reflector. I had to melt the plastic (housing) slightly with a soldering iron (no dremmel available) to get it to fit. The fan housing on the LED bulb was a bit to large to get into the housing opening. But I eventually got it. NO issues installing the driver side light.
2)I also got the High Beam LEDs (H1) size as mentioned earlier in this post. However, I do not see any way of actually mounting and or plugging in an H1 bulb into the cars existing wiring. Unless there is a plug hiding somewhere in the shroud which I doubt. Anyone else have this issue with the 2017 FiST? Could the '17 model possibly have a different size plug requirement for the High Beams?
I wonder if a clip like this would help as our high beams "lock in" the h1 bulbs via the power plug. http://www.dx.com/p/mz-h1-led-headlight-retainers-for-ford-focus-high-beam-light-2-pcs-473422
 


Messages
11
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Location
College Station
So I got some of these AUXBEAM LEDs for my 2017 FiST. And I ran into some issues installing them.

1) The passenger side Low Beam light would not fit into the shroud even after adjusting the reflector. I had to melt the plastic (housing) slightly with a soldering iron (no dremmel available) to get it to fit. The fan housing on the LED bulb was a bit to large to get into the housing opening. But I eventually got it. NO issues installing the driver side light.
2)I also got the High Beam LEDs (H1) size as mentioned earlier in this post. However, I do not see any way of actually mounting and or plugging in an H1 bulb into the cars existing wiring. Unless there is a plug hiding somewhere in the shroud which I doubt. Anyone else have this issue with the 2017 FiST? Could the '17 model possibly have a different size plug requirement for the High Beams?
I'm not sure, the problem is the H1 bulbs don't have anyway of actually plugging in...unless I completely missed something.
 


Gearbox88m

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Active Duty U.S. Army
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I just installed the F16's in my '17. No issues getting them to fit, no modifications needed to be made. The pass side was a bit tight, I had to remove the coolant res to have enough room to get my hand in there to seat the bulb, but that was it.
 


TyphoonFiST

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I just installed the F16's in my '17. No issues getting them to fit, no modifications needed to be made. The pass side was a bit tight, I had to remove the coolant res to have enough room to get my hand in there to seat the bulb, but that was it.
You didn't remove the whole assembly? It makes it 20x easier to do ....IMO.

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neeqness

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I remove the cooler reserve tank too to change out my headlight bulbs. I don't like replacing the whole fixture. It always feels like it's about to break as I'm trying to gingerly place it back in.

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TyphoonFiST

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I remove the cooler reserve tank too to change out my headlight bulbs. I don't like replacing the whole fixture. It always feels like it's about to break as I'm trying to gingerly place it back in.

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Headlight assemblies like 3 bolts and unplug...easy as pie...easier to put bulbs in also when out of vehicle.

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neeqness

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Headlight assemblies like 3 bolts and unplug...easy as pie...easier to put bulbs in also when out of vehicle.

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Putting them back they don't just slip in place. At least not on my car. I have to wrestle it in and the whole time while being careful because it feels like it will break if I try to force it too much.

Really miss when you didn't have to remove anything but the bulb...but it is a small car and I get that space is a premium.

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TyphoonFiST

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Putting them back they don't just slip in place. At least not on my car. I have to wrestle it in and the whole time while being careful because it feels like it will break if I try to force it too much.

Really miss when you didn't have to remove anything but the bulb...but it is a small car and I get that space is a premium.

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Oh they do...I'll shoot a video to show how they slip into place...next time I change a bulb.


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neeqness

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Maybe for you. Mine doesn't though. I'm glad I don't have to wrestle with it on the passenger side at least.

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AzNightmare

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Practice makes perfect I guess... lol

I lost count how many times I've popped my headlights off and removed my bumper. Probably could do it with my eyes closed now (well the headlight assembly removal, not the bumper)

I think the trickiest part that tutorials usually don't cover is that when installing the headlight assembly back in, there is a white clip where the bottom of the assembly snaps into. It can shift and spin and often moves out of place when the assembly is pulled out, and if it's not re-positioned properly afterward, putting the assembly back in afterward can become a problem and most people will keep wrestling with it, unable to figure out why there's resistance.

It's pretty simple, but there's also a lot of tiny micro maneuvers that can be broken down step by step. Most tutorials don't bother with it cause it's almost natural most of the time. But there's also a little hook at the top of the assembly. Shift the whole assembly to clear it first. Then the action isn't really to pull the assembly out. It's more of a roll motion. Because there's hooks that hook the unit to the bumper.
 




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