GUIDE TO REPLACE HALOGEN HEADLIGHTS TO FACTORY LED.
Will install these tomorrow and finalise DRL wiring and height motor adjustment control at a later point.
This will not include a how to swap the actual headlight. Different front bars, brands etc. but you will see the mounting holes on the new headlights so what needs to be removed would be self explanatory.
MISC. ITEMS OF INTEREST TO SOME.
Low, high, DRL and parker are all LED.
Indicators are incandescent globes.
Current draw per light ( Only to .0 amps as good meter is hiding )
DRL 0.5 amp
Low 1.5 amp
High 0.3 amp
Parker lower than .0
Factory Ford wiring for the low beam on factory HID and LED headlights use a relay. It is entirely up to you whether to use a relay per headlight or not. Worst case the LED driver fails and back feeds the FET in the BCM and kills it, though doubtful. My thought is Ford kept the original HID loom rather than start building pre HID looms again due to re tooling costs as the high beam LEDs are wired directly to the BCM and not through a relay anyway. HID lights used a halogen globe for high beam so the trend continued with the LED high beam.
*** If you are using this article to install HID versions of the headlights, USE RELAYS ON LOW BEAMS!! If a ballast blows there is a high possibility of damaging your BCM.
HEADLIGHT WIRING
If you do not want the DRLs then the lights will use the same row of LEDs for parkers but just have a lower light output. This is then plug and play and you can skip the below and move on to the asbuilt section.
Make you life easier. Headlight plugs do not have the DRL wire in pin 7. You could chase genuine plugs from a wrecked vehicle but in this case it is easier to purchase 2 x patch harnesses (
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/284397299240 ) which you can then tap the DRL wires into.
Again this is only if you want true DRLs then you will need these. Do not order direct off Lightforce as postage is added. I received free postage on eBay with the product price being the same on both sites.
Once you have the patch harnesses ( one per light ), cut their red and green wires off and tap into the pin 7 wire. Easy to find and it is next to the empty pin 8 position. I chose to solder a 400mm wire for now and will continue the run at a later stage back to the BCM. Solder and tape the area appropriately. This is not a how too on best practices, good solder joints, good tape, good cloth tape and quality convoluted tube does go a long way though, although best practices would use quality crimping over soldering.
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- 2022-11-04 17_42_49-C1021.png (207.25 KiB) Viewed 576 times
DRL TO BCM WIRING
Your vehicle will not have the wiring to the BCM nor the pins in the BCM plug. I have a kit in the store here for this purpose which includes installation instructions so it will not be repeated here. Basically you pin 7 headlight pigtail will be wired into the cabin and to these BCM pigtails. DRL pin kit is here (
wp/product/drl-pin-kits/ )
ASBUILT CHANGES
Due to the low current draw and with factory LEDs and HIDS working through a relay the BCM will shut down the circuit if it see abnormally low or high current draw. For this we need to change asbuilt with Forscan, all changes here will be based on asbuilt and not non-asbuilt. I prefer to do all changes in full and not partial so although not every change is required I will list every change.
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- 2022-11-04 18_39_06-.png (110.74 KiB) Viewed 576 times
x = leave as is
Left and Right DRL circuits DTCs. ( Good for diagnostics as if a DRL or circuit fails then you will see a DTC )
726-24-01 xxxx-xx0x-xxxx
Change headlight style to QUAD
726-25-02 xxx3-xxxx-xxxx - I CHANGED THIS
Disable DRL with indicators on. ( Do it, some people enable rather than disable but I value people seeing my indicators rather than the focus being bright DRLs )
726-26-02 xxx1-xxxx-xxxx - I CHANGED THIS
Frequency Config
726-26-02 xxxx-xxx1-xxxx - I CHANGED THIS
726-26-02 xxxx-xxx2-xxxx - I CHANGED THIS
Outage Headlamps Config - Low Beam
726-26-02 xxxx-xxxx-x3xx
Vrms Target Config
726-29-01 xxxx-xxxx-x1xx - I CHANGED THIS
DRL Lamp Mask Config
726-45-01 xxxx-7Fxx-xxxx
DRL Lamp Config
726-50-01 10xx
***** The above is based on MY15 to 18 BCM firmware. There are additional blocks in a MY19+ for DRL. If you have an issue with XL, XLS MY19+ we can deal with it at the time.
As noted above I only change a few items. I may go back though and do the rest later. Everything works and is fully functional.
Only difference I will do to many is I did install a replacement light switch with levelling control so I built a complete loom to the cabin with the additional wiring and plugs. This is a not a have to as everything will function without it.
Feel free to ask any questions but this is all I can fit in today and just completed the wiring today.