[lazerbeam]

I just purchased a 2014 Explorer Limited and I’m having an issue with the headlights. When I purchased the vehicle I noticed that it was equipped with projector lens for the headlights. I assumed that because it was a Limited model it would have HID headlamps (like my 2013 Edge Limited). Apparently not! You have to get the 302A package to get them. The owner’s manual lists HB3 (aka 9005) halogen bulbs for non-HID equipped vehicles. These bulbs with projector lens are close to worthless. The manual states that the fuses for the left and right low beam are 15 amps each (equiv to 180 watts per side). There is no listing for high beam other than something called “high beam shutters” (a single entry for 5 amps – equiv to 60 watts). I have been toying with the idea of doing an HID conversion as I have done several of them before. The issue I’m having is that all of the HID Kits are for a single beam bulb. In another words its equivalent to only a low beam (or maybe high beam?). I did find one dual beam HID bulb kit from a company in Canada that I’ve used before. They are OK but the shipping cost is almost the same as the HID kit. I’m not sure at this point if the headlight wiring is a two or three wire set up. Most of pictures I’ve seen of 9005 lights only depict a two pin connection which is weird for what should be a dual element bulb (low/high beam). It appears that the only way I easily get at the bulb to examine it is to remove the head light assembly. There appears to be one screw and a couple of somewhat brittle plastic eyelets in the head light assembly that snaps over some hard plastic hook-clips. The both look like they could be broken very easily. So with all that said: Has anyone done an HID conversion on the 2014 Explorer and; does anyone know how difficult is it to remove the headlight assembly? Would like to know what HID kit was used and if it retained the low-high beam functionality. Also does anyone know what a “high beam shutter” is?

8/26/13
I found a partial answer to my question regarding shutters. Many HID headlights that consist of one bulb per side and are high beam only. The shutters are used to control the direction of the headlight beam (downward for low beam and upward for high beam). They are also used for some single beam halogen bulbs and newer LED headlight bulbs. The bulbs in my 2014 Explorer are HB3’s (with HB indicating high beam). That explain why all the pictures of HB3’s and 9005’s have only two wires rather than the more traditional three wire Hi/Low beam dual filament bulbs.

 

[Onyxlights]

Lazerbeam,
I trust by now you have found an answer to your question.

You are correct. Your headlight housing has 'shutters' that block off or allow light. In simple terms it is a metal flap that folds up and lets more light through when you turn the brights on. The 2012 and 2013 explorer have the same setup.

The 9005 bulb is equivalent to H10, 9145, 9140 and HB3. You would be changing to a 9005 kit. They are available from many vendors, including us @ www.onyxlights.com

I'm happy to help if you have any other questions.

 

[AAK5456]

Hi the ford dealers here are telling us that converting from halogen to hid will damage the pcm is this true has anyone have already converted from halogen to hid? Or is it better to use led headlights?

 

[Gencoupe]

Hi the ford dealers here are telling us that converting from halogen to hid will damage the pcm is this true has anyone have already converted from halogen to hid? Or is it better to use led headlights?

Dealers are always full of bullshit. Techs sometimes know what they are talking about.
There is no reason for HID to damage your pcm/BCM - fuses are there for a reason. The only thing you can do is melt your wires if you runing too much wats on small gauge wire - that's were HID wire harness come in to save the day.

I Am Running 35w kit on my Explorer sport. Bought it from DSM TUNING ($60 for complete kit). I had their $35 HID kit on my Outback and had no issues in 3 years that I had it on the car, so I wen t with same cheep company, but opted for better kit, as they advertise having higher lumins output.

I did also opted to buy HID wiring harness with my kit that would suplly current directly from battery (only uses one oem headlight plug for triger ing relay to turn on light). This way OEM wiring sustem is not overtaxed during power up, or blast not getting enough juice at start up.

Also having wire harness alowed me to install a delay relay (in place of regular relay that was on the harness). That way my lights have 5s delay to turn on, and starting engine does not interfere with blasts power up (low voltage during engine start sometimes prevents HID from starting/liting up - if both are happening simultaneously).

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk