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It's up to you. 55W gives 20-30% more brightness. As you are essentially "overdriving" the bulbs with the 55W ballast, you get a brighter hotspot in the center of the beam pattern which essentially lowers the perceived color (it lowers the Kelvin rating) of the bulb.

 

So, if you run a 5000K bulb at 35W, it will appear 5000K (white, with a very slight blue hue). If you run that same 5000K bulb at 55W, the higher intensity washes out the color a bit and it appears as 4300K. That is a perfectly crystal white color.

 

If you running 35W, I recommend 4300K bulbs. 55W, I recommend 5000K bulbs. Please don't go any higher than 5000K.

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droth33 – If you feel up to the task you will be amazed at the difference an HID upgrade makes on the Edge. As others have mentioned, the Edge already has a projector style housing which appears to be identical to the housing the Ford uses with their factory HID option.

 

I ordered the TRS Morimoto 9012 kit with 35-watt ballasts and 5000k bulbs. In perhaps an over abundance of caution I also ordered the relay harness. I only recently noticed that they sent me 55-watt ballasts. After reading candurin’s description of the 55-watt system, I am glad that they did. In hindsight they probably thought I wanted the 55-watt system since I had sprung for the relay.

 

I mounted the ballasts behind the headlights using the bracket that came with the kit. The relay is mounted on an existing bolt on the firewall. Cover up the wiring with some black plastic split wire loom and you will have a very clean installation.

 

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One further note about the TRS kit, even though they advertise a 9012 kit it ships with a 9006 bulb. This was not a surprise as no one makes a 9012 HID bulb. The passenger side bulb installed without a problem. I struggled with the driver’s side bulb for about 30 minutes before I finally held the HID bulb side by side with the 9012 halogen bulb and realized the slight difference in the mounting flange. 20 seconds of trimming with a Dremel tool solved the problem and the bulb installed without a hitch. If you don’t have a Dremel you could probably make due with a razor knife, just don’t cut your finger off.

 

With the bulbs properly seated there was no aiming adjustment required. I have nice bright factory looking HID’s and no one has ever flashed at me thinking that my brights were on.

 

Once you have this project under your belt you could spring for a pair of Dan’s DRL’s and have a transformed Edge with state of the art lights.

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I really hate to ruin your holiday (hopefully you read this on Thursday!). But, you did receive the 35w ballast.

 

3Five (SS) is their 35w:

 

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=21742

 

5Five is their 55W ballast:

 

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=21743

 

I believe you mistook the SS designation as 55.

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I really hate to ruin your holiday (hopefully you read this on Thursday!). But, you did receive the 35w ballast.

 

3Five (SS) is their 35w:

 

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=21742

 

5Five is their 55W ballast:

 

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=21743

 

I believe you mistook the SS designation as 55.

 

That is exactly what I did, and I did not even notice it until I was looking at the pics I took. None the less I am pleased with the color and brightness. To me it looks like its is on the same scale as Dan's DRLs. That was the goal.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Everyone,

 

Thanks for this informative thread, the information is excellent and the videos are top notch! I'm another guy who would like to upgrade headlights on my 2013 Edge SEL with factory halogen projectors. Before I proceed I just want to confirm that I only need to order ballasts and bulbs to do this upgrade. I'm thinking Morimoto 5Five Ballasts and 9006: Morimoto 3Five bulbs from The Retrofit Source. I think I've got it right but want to make sure.

 

Thanks again.

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No problem. Also, take into consideration that if you go with the 55W ballasts, the color temp of the bulb you select will appear warmer.

 

I.E. If you go with a 5000K bulb (all bulbs are 35W) at 55W, then it will appear to look 4300K (due to the "overdrive" of the bulb and warmer hotspot in the center of the beam pattern). 6000K looks 5000K, etc.

 

I highly recommend 5000K with 55W ballasts. They look OEM and a perfectly crystal white color.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks again for the recommendation and I'm waiting for my Morimoto Elite HID kit to arrive. Two quick questions 1. Do I have to use the relay they provide or can I simply run with the ballasts connected to the factory feed? 2. Assuming I do require the the relay, where can I find the the factory trigger that will connect to the relay?

 

Once I have these answers I should be good to go. Looking forward to doing this install.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Finally got my Morimoto 5000K bulbs with 55W ballasts installed, definitely a worthwhile upgrade! I am experiencing an odd issue though. If I leave my lights in Automatic mode and start the vehicle in a dark environment the lights come on fine, if I drive to a light environment and the lights are switched to off or daytime mode my bulbs start flickering. The only way I seem to be able to avoid the flickering is to keep the lights set to off manually then turn them on manually. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if it's expected behavior.

 

Thanks!

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Finally got my Morimoto 5000K bulbs with 55W ballasts installed, definitely a worthwhile upgrade! I am experiencing an odd issue though. If I leave my lights in Automatic mode and start the vehicle in a dark environment the lights come on fine, if I drive to a light environment and the lights are switched to off or daytime mode my bulbs start flickering. The only way I seem to be able to avoid the flickering is to keep the lights set to off manually then turn them on manually. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if it's expected behavior.

 

Thanks!

Based on your question above.. did you run with the relay or connect ballasts to factory wiring?

 

The point of the relay is to provide direct battery power to the ballasts. The factory wiring is running a lower amperage fuse than factory HID bulbs do meaning they draw more power. The relay and direct to battery connection wiring harness allows you to switch the lights on and off when the switch is used, triggering the relay to pass power to the ballasts from the battery. It also prevents the ballast noise from interfering with the Body Control Module as they are not linked together.

 

So how did you hook up the kit?

Edited by 12Edge
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Initially I was running the relay configuration, however I'm now running the ballasts directly off of the factory feed through the bulbs. When I was running the relay and I had my lights set to Auto mode I would hear a loud buzzing (which I think was coming from the driver side ballast) whenever the lights turned to daytime mode. This did not happen when the lights were running in "night time" mode or on.

 

After removing the relay and running the ballasts directly from the factory feed the buzzing issue is gone. Now in Auto mode when my lights go to "day time" mode my fog lights are activated, the headlights are off and there's no buzzing from the ballasts. So basically with the relay I had issues, without it things seems stable. Since I posted my last comments the flickering seems to have stopped and the lights stay off during the day. I'm not sure how/why the flickering stopped as I didn't change anything with my setup.

 

Thanks.

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The only way the ballast would be "Buzzing" is if it were powered. Is it possible the relay was mis-configured and the ballast was always getting power regardless of the light switch state? I assume you had the relay power switching lead connected directly to the battery? So basically the relay was tripped/triggered by powering cars light circuit and that made the relay make contact from the battery connected wire to the ballast power in?

 

I was able to make mine buzz when I ran it off AC to DC converted power and the inverter was at the lower limit of the amperage the ballast demanded.

Edited by 12Edge
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  • 6 months later...

Go to http://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-9012.html

I had these on my last car, Mazda 3 sport, for a year and a half and couldn't be happier with the product. I was going to remove it from my mazda and install them in my 2014 Edge after buying the different bulbs, but I went into the dealership and drove out 2 hours later in my Edge. I can't say enough good things for this website and their products. I have had different HID kits in previous cars and the ballasts would always go or issues with other parts of the system. The Retrofit Source kits come with everything you need to install the HID system properly and you won't run into problems. For $150 you feel like you are getting something that is a factory component.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Go to http://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems/morimoto-elite-hid-system-9012.html

I had these on my last car, Mazda 3 sport, for a year and a half and couldn't be happier with the product. I was going to remove it from my mazda and install them in my 2014 Edge after buying the different bulbs, but I went into the dealership and drove out 2 hours later in my Edge. I can't say enough good things for this website and their products. I have had different HID kits in previous cars and the ballasts would always go or issues with other parts of the system. The Retrofit Source kits come with everything you need to install the HID system properly and you won't run into problems. For $150 you feel like you are getting something that is a factory component.

 

I'm interested in this upgrade for my 2014 edge sport. Do I need the Canbus or the HD relay? I've tried researching but I'm not sure which I should go with. Thanks.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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