LED Headlight Accents

Oct. 15, 2003 (update Oct. 21, 2003)

Complete "How-To" installation for www.lunaraccents.com L.E.D. headlight accents.

Photos coming shortly. Have to fill up roll of film as digital camera wasn't conveniently available. Should be up end of the week.

Tools Needed

Long slot screwdriver
1/4 inch drill bit and drill
compressed air (optional)
crimp style wire tie-in connector
small slot screwdriver

Procedure

open the hood
push back and pull up on both headlight retaining tabs, one behind and to the outside, second a bit more forward behind the headlight on the inside. These tabs retain the headlight adjusters and the whole headlight assembly.
with tabs up, carefully pull headlight assembly forward and away from the front of the vehicle.
rotate retaining ring on the halogen bulb and remove bulb. Do not touch bulb with fingers or moisture!
remove headlight shell from vehicle.
hold headlight shell up as if it was in vehicle and drill 1/4 inch hole somewhere in the bottom. I chose off to the inside 1/2 way away from the halogen bulb because too close and the LED life is very short with high heat.
use the small screwdriver and remove any burrs from the hole, if necessary do the same with long screwdriver through halogen bulb hole.
move headlight housing so halogen bulb hole faces down and either shake the assembly to remove plastic bits from drilling out or use a bit of compressed air blown into your fresh drill hole.
I chose to have the metal spade of the LED wiring (gnd) on the passenger or battery side. So mount that one first in the passenger headlight shell. My alarm horn is mounted there so I just put the gnd wire under one of the screws that hold the horn down.
push the LED through the hole and use your finger nail to get the rubber grommet started. Then use a tiny slot screwdriver and go around in a circle pushing the rubber grommet into the hole. Be careful not to push it in too far as it will be next to impossible to get out if you do!
I drilled the holes in the bottom of my headlight shell so literally impossible for water to get in. You may want to think of doing the same.
The instructions now call for installing the plastic plug into the grommet to completely seal the connection but my drill bit was a bit smaller than 1/4 inch as I didn't have one handy. When I attempted to push in the plug it partially pushed the rubber grommet into the headlight shell so I was able to luckily push it back out with the long slot screwdriver through the halogen bulb hole (whew). So I didn't use the plugs. I figure that the connection is quite tight anyhow. We'll see how it goes long-term.
ok, now you've done the first light. Push it back into the grille. You'll have to make sure the headlight adjusters are in the correct orientation to go back into their original holes. Slowly insert it wiggling it as you go. Once the headlight shell is all the way in push down on the retaining tabs and secure it in place.
remove the plastic cover in front/and over your radiator. It's those little philips screw tabs. Some don't like to come out so just use a tiny slot screwdriver to get under the screw portion and pull up. Usually pop out without too much damage.
now run your wire across to the other headlight and use the supplied zap straps.
same procedure as above to pull the headlight shell, drill the hole and insert the LED.
once installed drop the blue LED wire down behind the headlight.
remove the big 8-pin connector from your daytime running lights module. I used a voltmeter and you can do the same to determine which wire has 12v when the engine is running. For me it was the grey/black wire.
using a blue wire crimp connector tie into this grey-black wire.
turn on the ignition to RUN position and check LED's. They should be lit.
if you want to disable your daytime running lights simply remove the plug from the daytime running module and leave it unplugged. I chose to just remove the whole module from the truck. It's about 3.5x3.5 inches and 1.5 inches thick with a heatsink on the top and black in colour on a small metal bracket located just in front of the spin-on oil filter in the driver's side front bumper area under the headlight. You don't want your daytime lights on anyway or you won't be able to see the LED's. If you try to disable the daytime lights by pulling a fuse (can't remember now if it's inside the vehicle or the fuse box under the hood) it will also kill your foglights so you can't use that method unless you don't care about using your foglights in an XLT F-150.
now just put the black radiator cover back on, close the hood and you're done.

Here are some LED lit up pictures:

Late afternoon, not really visible.

Early evening, somewhat visible.

Same as above, frontal shot.

When it's dark out!

The camera does show it to give an overall luminous affect but it's more of a sparkly red colour, to the human eye, than a glow which is fine. If you want to make it look really good I would suggest on the F-150 to use 2 LED's per headlight and 1 LED in each clear corner to make the whole front end glow real nice.

Kudos to the folks at www.lunaraccents.com as their kit is very complete and includes excellent instructions. I recommend them.