I searched around a bit for the answer to my questions to no avail, so here goes.

Im looking for the safest bet on an HID kit, I have heard stories about electrical nightmares and I would obviously like to avoid those.

I just bought a 2011 Ford F150 SuperCrew with EcoBoost. I love the truck and couldnt be happier, but I would like to do some small things to it to make it my own. So, here are my questions to you guys.

-Should I get 35w or 55w? (Keep in mind I want to do what is safest for my truck)
-Will and HID bulb damage my stock headlights?
-Does anyone have experience with THIS KIT?
-Does anyone know of a projector bulb conversion for the fog lights?
-What will I need to do to avoid bulb error codes?

I think thats all for now, Thank You in advance

 

Get ready to put on a flame suit..general thoughts on "HID KIT'S" are a BIG no no. Very dangerous game to play with glare to oncoming drivers. It will be HIGHLY SUGGESTED that you save your pennies up and have a proper retro fit done with projectors. There are sites to help with retrofitting stock housings, but, it's not cheap, but very well worth the cost. www.sickhids.com is one that comes to mind immediately

 

I was thinking that projectors would be the way to go. Once I do get my projectors, what is a reputable hid kit to go with? Would 35 watt or 55 watt be the way to go?

 

55 watt would give you more light output

 

1.) Are you planning on buying cheap, crappy chinese kits from ebay (such as the ones you linked) and putting them in your stock housings? Then don't go above 35W. HIDs in halogen reflectors will produce obnoxious amounts of glare to oncoming drivers as well as an overly-lit foreground. 55W will be overkill.

2.) Yes, arc-xenon bulbs (especially the ones in low R&D areas such as China shops) will emit UV light that over time will cause the headlights reflective material to bubble and peel.

3.) Last time I heard about it, there are about 100-150 shops in Asia that manufacture kits. They then sell them to thousands of retailers. So basically if they aren't brand-name kits, you can classify them as "Chinese kits" which are cheap, break easily, have poor RF protection, and produce lots of glare. So linking to one specific kit isn't easy. Its just safe to safe to say that its crap.

4.) You can retrofit a Morimoto mini (or a smaller equivalent) in there which would give you great results. There is a member here who has a write-up in the 2004-2008 section of how he did this.

5.) From what little info I have on the new 12th gens, they don't have a bulb-out reporting system like higher end BMWs and Mercs do so I don't think you will get any codes but don't quote me on that.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

Thank you Raptor

 

my mini h1's were a bitter sweet nightmare. yeah they are bright as hell, but the h13 adapter was junk but its still in the testing phase and is given out as a freebie, but i also have ebay heads. it took me a few tries to get the bulb in there the right way and right now my passenger side light's cutoff is complete garbage for some reason but matt @ theretrofitsource.com is deff helping get me going again so i'm still satisfied. right before i retrofitted i put in my PnP kit in to get somewhat of a before and after effect and while my PnP kit lit things up pretty good, it also lit up oncoming traffics eyeballs. the mini h1's have a lot more even spread of light and covers well beyond ditch to ditch on a two lane road which really helps with deer in my area. the high beams are pretty awesome as well, i actually get down road light instead of maybe two more foot from the bi-xenon PnP kit. all in all, im very satisfied with the retrofit and one day i'll probably do fx-r's and put the mini's in my fogs like MSall did.

here's what i suggest for you, spend the 100 on ebay heads since they are a lot easier to work with and you have 4 options on what style you want. then get the mini h1's with the morimoto 35w ballast and your choice of kelvin for the bulb( i chose 6k ) and either gatling 2.0 shroud(what i used) or the apollo shroud, just make sure you use some form of glue on the shroud( i didn't and both my shrouds came off. haha). you will be in about 400 plus a tube of rtv and maybe some clamps depending on your tool box. once your done, you can probably get 100+ plus out of your oem heads

basically 300 bucks and you'll have lighting that is probably the best lights you've ever drove behind..

p.s. sorry for the long post, hell i can barely read back through it. lol

 

My suggestion would be to save up and get a retro done. I finally got my lights back from a retro job (I have a 2010 F150) and it was the best thing I could have done. no bulb out codes, I also changed my signal/running lights to switchback LED's to match the 5000k of my retro heads and it looks great. no Hyper flash with the LED's either so it was an easy swap.

 

Fishin, if you have pics, I'd like to add you to our ever-growing list of retrofitted members

 

Yeah I have been meaning to get some. will do and send them to you Raptor