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General Ford Flex Discussions • Re: Upgraded headlights for 2019 SE

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Post a picture of the outer headlight housing - they either need detailing or restoration.

ScratchX is an ultra-fine soft abrasive to get rid of things like fingernail marks on doors behind the handles, it does a good job of taking out light scratches which is mostly cleaning the debris out of the scratch and then smoothing it over. It’s nice to have for other things - clean the headlights first normally and then clean/polish with a microfiber cloth, turning to a clean side until the cloth only gets cleaner on it, then buff until shiny.

If that is not good enough and they need restoring, get this full kit:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00429NKWK

Read the instructions fully but DO NOT touch your headlights with anything larger (lower number) than 2000 grit sandpaper and wet sand - look on YouTube for a video.

Sylvania Silverstar Ultra are decent bulbs, honestly, that’s the biggest improvement you will see without investing a fair bit of money.

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Now, everything you didn’t want to know about LED headlights but didn’t care enough to ask (and few people care because they get better MPG and look cool):

LED are junk in housings not built for them. Even in purpose-built housings WITH lenses, they:
appear brighter than they are (hot spots)
Have an excessive (unacceptable by traditional definition) amount of stray light to oncoming drivers
Whiter on towards bluish often FEELS brighter but it doesn’t disperse a meaningful increase in side vision

“Plug and play” xenon HID are a bit better, but are more for style than function (we had some professionally installed when we bought our FLEX).

You really have to drive a vehicle with OEM Xenon or BiXenon headlights to truly appreciate what an upgrade they were (are). They have a very crisp cutoff; when leveled correctly, the line doesn’t go over oncoming driver’s hoods (exceptions obviously exist). Lenses and reflectors are engineered to a very predictable light arc that comes off the bulb. Your ability to see ‘tree line to tree line’ is just amazing.

You can retrofit the limited Xenon’s - about $600 for the pair of housings, $100 for bulbs $50 for the connectors and wiring, then all you need are ballasts. Xenon’s are voltage regulated and need the ballasts to make the upward conversion for the bulbs.

The problem is that the market is all over the place - some company who might be out of business in a year could be selling really well made ballasts for $50/pair. Companies that have been in the business for a while don’t change part numbers when they decide to save money, or use a different type of component that could be lower quality.

The best thing anyone can do is back-to-back test drive different setups/vehicles on the same dark back road to get a good idea of what you have. My MkS has the Xenon’s but I know they’ll be brighter if I get new bulbs (it’s a 2015) but it’s been too busy ‘being a ford’ and costing me money for dumb reasons.

I had a 2009 Mazda6 (fusion’s fraternal twin) with xenon’s and it was just awesome. When we added a 2015 CX-5, the LED headlights were a definite downgrade. My WRX has OEM LED headlights and they’re not bad for light production, but people think I have brights on most of the time. The LED on Cadillacs and Audi A6 are just criminal - looks like the aliens are landing.

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