Ford F150 - Headlight Woes

To breif everyone, I bought TYC Lightning Style headlights and installed it on my 01 F150 Supercrew 4 x 4. I also bought Silverstar Ultras and SilverStar Corner lights.

After spending an hour or so trying to align my headlights, i decided to go to the dealer today, pay the 40 bucks and keep peace of mind. When they were finished, I happily drove home.

I take my family out to dinner tonight, excited about enjoying my evening drive, when I still see the choppiness of the lighting. I also compared the light distance against other cars. my lights are brighter in the low beam, but short in distance and height.

Here are a few shots:




Not sure if it's standard or if it's the Silverstar ULTRA bulbs or the headlight manufacturer. I know of one member with the same issue. Is this normal for those with lightning headlights? Is this a photometric issue or am I an isolated case?

any advice would be appreciated

Why do you guys buy that crap? man, I'm sorry, but, the manufacturors have it figured out.

But. I'm am old crapper, what do I know!

I hope you get it adjusted, and it works out great for you.

I had bought some after market head projector headlights and was not impressed either. I went back to the factory ones and use silverstar ultra bulbs. They are bright and spread out really good.

Spare Tire: I already contacted the place I bought the headlights form and sent the same scans. Hopefully something turns out.

Firefighter: what brand did you buy? may i ask what they look like?

I will have to look when I get home. I got them off an Ebay store. But they had an Almost amber color projection light for normal driving, and a seperate small 55w Highbeam. I didn't like the projection light so i rigged them up where the high where on normal. But still did not put out as much light as my stock ones do.

They were neat looking though. black carbon look behind a clear face. Even had 5 led accent lights at the bottom of each one. Looks were good, but crappy performace in my opinion.

Yeah, you've got a lot of striation in the beam. What does the company suggest you use for a source. Some of the issue could be from filament misalignment in the projector module, but I doubt its a significant ammount. Just a poor design.

Overall, the pattern on your garage door looks acceptable. It's kinda hard to say without a level reference. A well designed beam pattern kinda looks like the verizon logo. It should gently slope from the left, reach a point, and then take off sharply to the right. Try standing in front of one of the headlights and see what it looks like.

Nick

Guys, I found out several things-mostly that the TYC headlights I have doesn't have the same photometic quality as OEM. I am returning the item I bought.

Also, I got info about bulbs and decided to return the Silverstar ultras. Turns out the do have whiter light, but not increased range. In fact they only produce 1350 luminecent with 250 hours of life compared to the GE Nighthawks with 1750 and 350 hours.

Be careful about lumen ratings. They don't tell the whole story. The eye's sensitivity shifts at night to the blue. If the silverstars are optimized for night vision, then they could have more or the same effective light output as the GEs. Its really hard to say without looking at the spectral power distribution of each.

I would probably install the GEs just because of the longer life rating.

BTW, can anyone guess what I'm studying in grad school? LOL.

Nick