This is more of an account of my experience/a rant than a question, directed at those of you looking to upgrade to HID lighting on your X-Type.

I have an '05 VDP, it has all the options except Nav and factory HID. I decided that a good modification to make the car more up-to-date would be the addition of HID and LED lighting. My project ended up going through several "stages" since I bought bulbs in batches to avoid any massive headaches in case of any issues.

My first step was purchasing 5 sets (10 bulbs total) of W5W bulbs (the little ones that go in the sidemarkers/various other places). I got these from idjmtoy.com on sale for ~$10/set. The install was straightforward for the front and rear sidemarkers, side turn signals, license plate lights, and parking lights. No resistors or other extraneous hardware were required and it looks good.

On to the next step, the tail lights. Since I was aware that turn signal LEDs usually require resistors to function normally, I held off on these because I had discovered several bulbs which claimed to have built-in resistors (I didn't really want to modify the wiring harnesses). I got the entire lot of bulbs necessary to do everything in each tail light from ledoption.com, a site I now highly recommend because of their aggressive pricing, top-notch support, and quality products. The bulbs I bought were all $22/set which is fair for the quality you get. All of these bulbs installed fairly easily and have been working flawlessly for over a month. I did have an issue with the set I used for the brake lights; the lower intensity of the dual intensity LED seemed to have "burned-out." I contacted LEDoption and they allowed me to return the bulbs for a refund. They also allowed me to put a deposit down so that they could immediately send me another set instead of making me wait until they received the defective set. Well, the new set has been working good for almost a month now whereas the defective set burnt out in just a few days so I feel like I'm in the clear now.

After feeling confident in these LED option bulbs, I decided to order my turn signals. I looked at ijdmtoy.com for their resistor-built-in bulbs but they were expensive (~$45/set) and they didn't have the correct bulbs for the rears. I found another site, aznoptics.com, that also claimed to have the bulbs with built in resistors. These bulbs were about $30/set so I ordered them for the front and rear. When they came in, I put them in the front first. I then tested them by engaging the turn signal. Hyperflash... of course. So these "resistor-built-in" bulbs were either a blatant lie or the resistor in them was not adequate. The same thing happened with the rear ones. However, the rears produced another issue I didn't like - they were way too orange. In fact they were almost red. Keep in mind that both of these bulbs said "amber" when I purchased them but the fronts were a yellow/amber color while the rears were pretty much red. I was a little aggravated by this and found that I couldn't even return them unless they were defective. I decided to go back to ledoption and get some turn signals and resistors. They sell resistors for $7/set.

Once I got all this stuff in, I was finally able to complete stage three. I was able to get the rear resistors in without cutting into the wiring harness by simply attaching the leads from the resistors to the appropriate metal surfaces on the bulb plate that pulls out of the tail light assembly. The front resistors can be attached without modification too, you can shove the leads from the resistors up inside the bottom of the plug that detaches from the bulb housing. However, I decided not to go that route as the leads weren't long enough on their own to extend to where I wanted to mount the resistor. By the way, the resistor must be mounted on metal because it gets very hot when in use. I decided to JB weld mine to the metal frame of the car in both the front and rear, it was easier than drilling a hole or using a self-tapping screw in such a small space.

Now it was time to begin stage 4, the HID conversion. Originally, I had wanted to get 3 sets of HIDS to do the low beams, high beams, and fog lights but I decided not to do the high beams with HID bulbs because, due to the warm up time involved, they aren't ideal for that scenario. I was able to find some Phillips Diamond Vision 5000k H1 halogen bulbs on eBay for $38. They are very similar in color when turned on and are very easy to just plug in, no modification necessary. In fact I used them for my main beams for a little while before my HID kits arrived and I was impressed with how much brighter they were than the stock bulbs.

My HID kits came from the eBay seller Xenonexperts. They were $31/set (cheaper than the Phillips halogen bulbs) and were Xentec branded. Both kits were 5000k, but one was H1 type (low beams) and the other H11 (fog lights). Note that on my '05 the fogs are H11 bulbs but on some earlier models they are apparently also H1s and require some modification to get them working properly.

I took the car over to a friends house who helped with getting the front bumper cover off. We then took out the headlight assemblies which makes the installation much easier and allowed me to repair one of my assemblies that had the broken adjuster problem. The installation for the fogs was a breeze since there is a lot of working space. We decided to mount my fog light ballasts on top of the plastic skirt that holds the bottom of the front bumper cover in place. The low beam kits fit on the metal "shelf" portion of the frame underneath the dust covers for the headlight assemblies. By the way, we got the HID kits to work with the dust covers by drilling a 3/4" hole through the back of the cover and running the wiring to the ballast through there.

We put everything back together and it looked good, the headlights were a little more blue than I expected but it didn't look tacky. However, I noticed that there was a slight flicker to the bulbs, mainly the low beams. I decided to deal with it since it really wasn't noticeable unless you were really looking for it. It was now dark out and I began the 10 minute drive back home. Everything was working the whole way home, but when I pulled up to my garage I realized I needed to make some adjustments to level the beams. I began to do this and in the process I turned the lights on and off a couple times to see how they warmed up. Well, within an hour or two of the installation one headlight was already out. I checked the fuse, it was good; switched the bulbs, they were both good; tried an old halogen, it worked fine. So I narrowed it down to the ballast.

Now, I was pretty pissed off that this P.O.S. had already given out so even though I could return this ballast for a replacement, I decided to do a little research and buy some high-quality replacement ballasts. This led me to a brand called Maxlux that I found on Amazon. It has perfect reviews and many people were talking about how these solved their HID woes. They were $30 a piece but I bought two because I wanted the best for my baby. Best decision I ever made. I put the first one into the known working side and it made the bulb light up twice as bright and with a more accurate 5000k color. It seems that the projector lens was making it appear more blue than it was so now it looked identical to my fog lights. The flicker was gone too.

However, when I went to put in the ballast on the side that wasn't lighting, nothing. It still wasn't illuminating. I tested the ballast on the working side and it worked so it wasn't the ballast. It turned out to be defective wiring. I was forced to reuse the wiring from the Xentec kit that went from the stock Jag wiring to the ballast because the new Maxlux ballast didn't come with this wiring since it was just a ballast and not a kit. So, I had more stuff to buy to get this working. I decided to buy a TGP (Third Gear Performance) relay kit from amazon. Basically this thing plugs into one side of the stock headlight wiring and the positive terminal on the battery, then it has two ends that connect to each ballast. This device allegedly helps reduce flicker and prevents issues with current flow, neither seemed to be an issue at the time but I wanted to cover my bases in case of a future problem.

I installed the relay by securing its wiring behind existing hoses and other things under the hood. I then attached both ballasts, wired those to the bulbs and went inside to hit the switch. Success! Everything was finally working, I leveled my low beams one last time and watched them for a few minutes to see if there was any flickering - none whatsoever.

That was the end of a project that had begun over a month ago. The exterior of the car looks fantastic. It gives it a much updated look but still looks stock, exactly what I wanted.


What I learned from this whole experience:

-ijdmtoy.com: overpriced but you do get quality bulbs (recommended)
-ledoption.com: good deals on great bulbs and they have every bulb you would ever need for this car, very helpful (highly recommended)
-aznoptics.com: devious and little to no quality control (not recommended)
-Xentec: complete P.O.S. with bad wiring and bad ballast (definitely not recommended)
-Maxlux: great quality, you can tell by just holding the ballast, costs $60 if you want a complete kit, $30 for a ballast only but very much worth it. If I were to do it again I would buy their kit from the beginning (highly recommended)
-TGP: relay seems to be working as it should and looks to be of good quality, not sure if I needed it but it wasn't expensive (recommended)


I would be happy to answer any questions that others may have about any part of the process. Also, if anyone wants pictures of anything let me know and I'll try to get them, but please realize that if it involves me dismantling anything I may just Photoshop a generic image to avoid the hassle.

Good luck to anyone pursuing a similar project!

 

emaraszek, I have to back up your comment about the Xentec bulbs. You are either going to get a set of bulbs that will last forever or you will get a set that will be nothing but trouble. I just installed 2 sets on the wife's Ford Fusion and I got 2 sets of the Xentec bulbs. The ones I installed in the fog lights I use all the time and have been nothing but perfect. The ones in the headlights. Lets just say that I have had to pull the front bumper off of the car 4 times to fix all the issues. After 2 new ballasts (1 on each side), some new wiring (switched over to a completely independent relay harness to ensure no further issues), and a failed relay, I finally have them working with no issues.

 

Thermo, thanks for confirming that others have had issues with Xentec too.

I was hesitant at first to buy $30 ballasts and a $15 relay but to have my headlights now working perfectly for $75, it's worth it. I just wish I would have known about the Maxlux kits from the beginning since now I'm concerned that the Xentec bulbs may fail at some point as well.

 

emaraszek, from my experience, all the Xentec issues are with the ballasts, not the bulbs. So, rest easy. Besides, once the bulbs work correctly, they seem to last forever. Sounds like you are over the hump.

 

Ok, good to know. Hopefully the lights are all set then

 

And the other two Xentec ballasts (fog lights) are officially blown too. I rarely use the fog lights, but I'll get around to ordering another $75 worth of equipment for them at some point...

 

Any pictures ?????

 

smitty, I have done a similar conversion on my car. Now, my car came with HIDs, but I have converted the fogs over to HIDs and I have converted my running lights over to LED. In the case of my running lights, I used 10mm 285K MCD LEDs with a resistor added in line. I did it this way due to hearing all the horror stories guys were having with the LED bulbs (really a series of small LED chips mounted to a PCB). I have seen some of these fail too. I am running over 4 years on the same LEDs with no issues. Mine are also almost as bright as the factory 194 bulbs too.

Here are some pics to give you an idea of what we are dealing with:


6000K HIDs with 7000K 10mm LEDs


What things looked like before the modification


A fellow JF member (Nav) and my cars side by side with HID DIP beams, HID fogs, along with LED running lights.


What you have to do to the car to access the headlights to do the HID conversion to either the DIP or fog lights. It looks brutal, but it really is a quick procedure to get the bumper cover off of the car. From there, everything is out in the open for you to work on.

 

I'll post some pictures within a day or two, I've just been extremely busy. Unfortunately you're not going to see my HID fogs because they're blown for now.

 

Oh man that sucks , I hope you get it fixed soon . I have done this mod on my Nissan but I just wanted to get a little info on the car before I get into the job .

 

All of the Xentec bulbs fail why I don't know . I have them on my motorcycle third set of bulbs and my daily driver second set of bulbs .

 

My theory is low quality wiring both inside the ballast and the connecting wires. It seems like replacing the ballasts and connecting wiring makes everything work good, but that's like replacing two thirds of the kit. The bulbs themselves seem to be just as good as any

 

This has been a VERY informative post!! Thanks emaraszek for all the useful info.

Forgive my ignorance, but how did you know what resistor to use and how did you connect it? Could you post a pic? If it's in a bad place, I understand.

Hey Thermo...I really like the look of your running lights. Would it be a PITA to see a pic of how you put that resistor inline? Also would it be the same one emaraszek used on his turn signals?

Thanks for your posts and patience, guys.

 

I don't have the car right now since it's in for maintenance, I was going to link to the site I bought them from (ledoption.com) but apparently they're down until the 7th.

This is basically what they look like:


All you have to do is attach the two wires that come off of the resistor to the two wires that feed into the turn signal bulb. This is easy to see in the front because there are only two wires, but in the back it's a large wiring harness that plugs into a plastic plate for all the rear bulbs. What I did on the rear ones is just tape the resistors leads onto the metal printing for the turn signal and the shared ground for the whole plate. I'll post a picture of this once I get my car back (hopefully on Tuesday) because I have to replace one of my tail lights anyway.

Now, for running lights I just used regular LED bulbs I got from Amazon. I love how they look because they produce the same effect as the stock bulbs but have the color to match my HIDs. Also they were a real easy plug-n-play type of job.

Here is the link:
I like these because they are longer than your average LED bulb so they stick farther into the housing and look fantastic when lit (pictures of this to come as well.)

I believe what Thermo did (he can correct me if I'm wrong) was make his own LEDs for the running lights and while he was at it he added resistors. I guess some people were having problems with LEDs in the running lights but the ones I'm using have been working great for almost 2 months now.

 

chiefshb, no, the resistor I used for my running lights are completely different than what Evan used. Take a look at the below pic:



If you look, you can see how I simply cut the wire and soldered a resistor in series. I used a 220 ohm/1 watt resistor when I did the mod. Also note that the pink/red tube you see just to the right of the resistor is heat shrink. I placed that over the resistor once I was ready to button up the light to prevent any issues with shorting out the LED. Not a tough job if you know how to use a soldering iron. The harder part was rolling the LED leads to make them fit into the light bulb socket. If you need more detailed information on this, let me know. I work on electronics as a profession. I will walk you through just about anything with a mod like this.

On a side note, would you happen to be a retired USN E-7 by chance?

 

Hope you get your X back soon. I know when I didn't have mine, I missed it...even though my fiance is the main driver (I love my truck too much to let her sit) I still love to drive it.

Can't wait to see pics. Think I'll start with the T10 LEDs from Amazon first and see how they look. For the price, I can afford to be disappointed.

So I was talking to my fiance about the HID lights and what I wanted to do and she liked it. I made the mistake of saying they come in different colors and asked what color she wanted her lights...can you guess what color she wants?? PINK!!! I was sad to inform her that they don't come in pink . Bad part is she saw me looking at interior LEDs and knows they do...that's what she was talking about. So now I have to make the interior glow pink!!! Looks like a 7 color kit is coming so I can change it when I drive!!!!

Women....

 

Thanks for the pic...I know it can be annoying answering a bunch of questions, but I'm a visual and hands-on learner. I an read something all day and it'll never click, but show me a pic and I got it...let me do it and I got it forever!!

To answer your question...I am not. I can only assume that is from the name? Sadly, I was not able to serve as I had intended (Marines). Seems when I was younger, I couldn't figure out what was getting me in so much trouble. Now I know...it was me!!

 

I think you'll like the T10s

Good luck with the pink interior...

 

cheifshb, if you need any help, let me know. The mod is easy, but does take a little bit of time as it isn't just a "plug and play" thing. But, at the same time, using the 285K MCD 10mm bulbs, I get the same light output in a color that I like.

Should I mention that they make HIDs in pink too? LMAO. Fortunately, they are also illegal to use on the road. So, you are safe there. He he he he he. I am facing the same issue with my significant other and wanting colored interior lights. I am going a slightly different way. I am looking at using 5050 LEDs. These are RGB LEDs with a controller. So, in short, I will have 16.7 millions colors to choose from. Now, which color do I want?

 

Thermo - Looks pretty straight forward, thanks.

emaraszek - Any reason you didn't use a flasher relay instead of a resistor?

2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Installation Accessories LED Replacement Bulbs | LED Lights for Cars | 12v | Super Bright LEDs

When I make up my mind, I'll post pics of the results. Thanks, again guys!

**Edit - I was looking for my truck and copied the wrong link, but they have these listed for Jaguars as well.**