TheWizard

Yes, that will happen with most cars. Most engine computers are programmed for a certain level of octane and will retard the ignition timing if lower octane is used (or for other reasons that cause engine knock such as stale fuel) to prevent damage from knock. That will cause a significant reduction in both performance and mileage. Your supercharged Cobalt required higher octane as its base fuel and when you used 87 octane it retarded the ignition timing to protect the engine. However, it will not advance the ignition timing if you use higher than specified octane so there is no performance gain from using something like Sunoco's 100 octane fuel. Basically it just passively does nothing until a knock sensor is triggered and then it reacts by retarding the timing. The Edge computer (along with Mustang and several other Ford products, Chevy Camaro and Corvette LS V8s, Chrysler Hemi V8s, some Kia and Hyundai engines, etc.) is programmed somewhat differently. It is designed to run on regular (87) octane but it actively checks continually for knock and advances the ignition timing to just below the point where knocking starts allowing the engine to produce the most power and economy possible for the fuel currently in use. That means that using higher octane fuel will make a difference although that difference is not particularly dramatic. For example, a Mustang 5.0 Coyote engine produces 412 horsepower on 87 octane or 420 horsepower on 93 octane. That 2% increase is in peak horsepower at 6,500 rpm so although it can make a difference in 1/4 mile times, it is not something you would ever notice in daily driving.

2011 Pony Edition Mustang convertible.

The math doesn't support using 93 octane... Let's say you can get 26mpg on 87 octane and 10% more on 93 octane (that's generous - I seriously doubt there would be that much improvement). 15 gallons of 87 octane would get you 390 miles. 15 gallons of 93 octane would get you 429 miles. But the 15 gallons of 87 would cost $25.49 and compared to $32.99 for the same 15 gallons of 93 octane (based on this morning's prices at the Shell closest to me: $1.699 for regular, $2.199 for premium). That's 6.54 cents per mile on 87 octane and 7.69 cents per mile on 93 octane so it's cheaper to accept the lower mileage of the regular gas. The numbers will be different depending on actual mileage and gas prices, but as long as the spread between regular and premium prices is greater than the percent improvement in mileage, the higher octane is a losing proposition (i.e. spending about 30% more to gain 10% mileage will never work regardless of actual gas prices). Even in the old days when there was only 10 cents separating each grade (20 cents from regular to premium), it wouldn't be worth it until the price of regular got over $2 per gallon.

Interesting! I didn't know that... neither did any of the mechanics I worked with. Of course that was a very long time ago and we only worked on domestic vehicles. (To give you an idea of how long ago... it was an American Motors dealership). What did the thermostat do? Open an air door or something?

That's a good point. It would be hard to deny that the intent of a jammer was to avoid getting stopped. However, one element of the charge of evading police would not be present... the charge must involve someone who is being pursued by police. A stationary laser trap (and they must be stationary for laser, unlike radar which can be mobile) hardly meets the pursuing requirement. That would be much more difficult to prove. Millions of people have radar detectors in their vehicles and they are not all trying to avoid police. For example, I have a remote radar detector in each of my vehicles (the receiver is mounted behind the grille and only a small head unit is inside the car). Yet I almost never go more than 5-6 mph over the limit. I use the detector more as a reminder to watch my speed. LEOs sometimes have a tendency to exaggerate their arrest/citation powers out of frustration over what they see as people getting away with things that they shouldn't. And certainly they could lay a charge like evading (just like people can sue for anything without necessarily having a case) but it wouldn't hold up in court. Still, who would want the hassle? My detectors were are available with optional laser jammers but I didn't get them because I don't see the need and like you I question their effectiveness.

Laser jammers are illegal in only a handful of states (CA, CO, IL, MN, OK, SC, TN, TX, UT and VA). There is no federal law regulating laser jammers as there is with radar jammers (not that there are any radar jammers available that actually work despite claims made by Phazer). That's because radar is microwave radio which falls under the jurisdiction of the FCC and is covered by the Communication Act of 1934 whereas laser is light which is not regulated by any federal agency. Radar detectors are illegal on military bases, in commercial trucks in all states and in all vehicles in Virginia and D.C.

No, although the bulb will run a little hotter due to the brighter filament design, the difference is not significant and will not cause any problems with your housings. Not specifically with the Sylvania brand but generally with all brands of "premium" halogen bulbs that are brighter than the standard for the bulb size - GE, Osram, Philips, PIAA and several others make brighter bulbs that all suffer shorter lifespans. Nick is correct... basically the brighter bulbs are designed to "overdrive" the filament so that they produce more light at the expense of bulb life.

The color is just for appearance. Generally, all things being equal, a slightly yellower bulb will actually provide better usable light. That's why all OEM HIDs are 4100K - 4300K rather than the whiter 5000K or bluer 6000K that the aftermarket seems to prefer. Halogen bulbs are made "whiter" by tinting the glass slightly blue to filter out the yellow range of the spectrum. That will produce the look that people want but also reduces the actual light output - sometimes significantly depending on how much tint is used. I've seen H9 bulbs that are tinted so blue that they actually produce less usable light than an H11. There is no free lunch. Silverstar H11 bulbs overdrive their filament to produce more light at the expense of significantly shortened life. Sylvania doesn't publish the nominal life of their bulbs in any easy-to-find places but the ratings I've seen come in around 125-150 hours - about 1/4 the life of the brighter H9 bulb and a small fraction of a normal H11 bulb.

You can replace the H11 bulbs with H9 to get a significant increase in light output (about 50% more) while maintaining the same halogen bulb design (for the beam pattern purists). It is true that the H9 bulbs won't last as long because they are designed with filaments optimized for output rather than longevity but you'll still get a couple of years of normal use out of them. H11 bulbs: 1400 lumens, 2000 hours nominal life H9 bulbs: 2200 lumens, 500 hours nominal life

I thought I had been clear in this thread but I guess it was one of the other threads where we have argued... my Mustang has aftermarket projector lamps from American Muscle. But they came with H9 halogen bulbs so I replaced the halogen with LED and still get the same sharp cutoff that is just like the photo I posted.

You know, some people are just hard to deal with. Yes, that image is from a "Florida motorcycle site". That site is Chapter FL1-V of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association of which I am a member and former chapter director. It happens that the domain name is registered to me and is hosted on my server so I use it when I want to host an image or other file for posting. And you'll notice that the directory is "LS1" which I set up for posting things to LS1Tech.com where I am a moderator. The image is a stock image I use whenever I want to demonstrate what a proper HID (or LED) beam cutoff pattern should look like. I have used it dozens of times and it has been re-posted who knows how many times so I am not surprised that it comes up on Google. You see I've been doing this for a very long time and I have neither the time nor the inclination to get a new image every time some kibitzer wants to see a light pattern because they think they know everything. You asked what my light pattern looks like and that is what it looks like. If you want to see it for yourself then buy yourself a plane ticket and come look. Otherwise, stuff it!

The cutoff is exactly the same as it was with the H9 bulbs so I guess the "general knowledge" isn't always accurate.

As I have said before, I have LEDs in my Mustang projectors and they work great! The pattern is sharp and evenly filled (without hot spots) and the distance is much better than the H9 halogens it came with. But we've been down this road before and it doesn't seem to matter to some that there are success stories out there, so we'll just have to agree to disagree.

No, because UK lights are designed for driving on the left and have a reverse pattern from what is used for driving on the right. You would blind oncoming drivers and have little visibility to the road shoulder and signage.

Actually, in Canada (or at least in Ontario), flashing blue lights are reserved for snow plows. Flashing blue lights combined with flashing red lights are sometimes used by law enforcement but more often they use red and white. Solid blue lights are permitted on the front of municipal buses. EDIT: I just checked the Alberta laws and found some strange requirements regarding blue flashing lights... police may use them but if they do, the blue lights must be on the right side of the vehicle and the red lights on the left side.

Well, another option would have been not to get "ricer" 8000K HIDs. Factory HIDs are 4100-4300K and aftermarket are available in 5000K pure white as well as 6000K "crystal" or "ice" white. 8000K is tending way too much towards the blue end of the spectrum to be truly effective lighting - they'll look bright because the human eye interprets blue as glare.

There are only two grades of gas in Saudi Arabia... Premium 91 and Super Premium 95. The government mandates that the 91 pumps be colored green and the 95 pumps are colored red. But the ratings are RON (Research Octane Number) which is different from the AKI (Anti-Knock Index) used in North America. AKI is a calculated value averaging the RON and MON (Motor Octane Number) values. You'll usually see it posted on pumps as (R + M) / 2. 91 RON is equivalent to 87 AKI and would be called Regular here. 95 RON is equivalent to 90 AKI which is slightly above our 89 octane mid-grade gas. They don't have an equivalent to our 93 Premium which would be 98-99 RON.

That would apply to vehicles that use their headlights at reduced voltage levels (usually by PWM - Pulse Width Modulation). The LED driver doesn't work well with input voltage below a certain level (9V is the common lower limit) and being a digital device it suffers from the same PWM issues as many HID ballasts - flickering and intermittent outages. A relay harness is a simple solution to that problem. On a related note, I found that the LMZ LEDs are quite sensitive to minor fluctuations in voltage. I noticed that they would flicker ever so slightly at idle. It was only visible when stopped at a light behind another car and seeing the reflection of the headlights off the back of the other car. Installing CAN BUS adapters (basically just inline capacitors) took care of that problem and they never flicker anymore.

I had tried the V-LEDs VX3 Gen 2.0 kits in my Mustang projectors but had two concerns about them... they weren't quite as bright as the HID kit I was replacing but more importantly they have no fan and the airspace behind my headlights is quite cramped causing concerns about sufficient cooling. So I upgraded to their LMZ Platinum LED kit and couldn't be happier. The LMZ kit produces a claimed 4500 lumens per bulb (I know that is exaggerated but even so it's still more than HID), has fan cooling and an adjustable mounting collar that allows some flexibility in changing the depth and alignment of the LEDs in the housing. They have all the advantages of LED - low current consumption, instant on, accurate color that doesn't change over time, and a life expectancy of more than the car. I don't have to worry about using the flash-to-pass feature (HIDs don't like that) and the beam pattern is as sharply defined as with the original H9 halogen bulbs that came with the lamps... despite some claims to the contrary. It's like going from conventional oil to synthetic.

SiriusXM has two add-on packages (besides their radio channels) called Sirius Traffic and Sirius Travel Link. Sirius Traffic works with your navigation system to show construction zones, accidents, road closings and other traffic related information. Sirius Travel Link provides information on weather, fuel prices, movie listings, sports scores, stock prices, red light camera locations and electric charging stations. Most of those features also require navigation to take full advantage of all of the capabilities (e.g. weather maps). Neither of those add-ons is related to voice commands so you must be referring to Ford's SYNC service when you mention difficulties hearing you. But I can sympathize with your voice command problems... sometimes when I try to make a phone call using voice commands, I swear the thing is going to say something stupid like "deploying airbags". You can "dock" (connect) your phone using Bluetooth or USB but if you want your phone display to show up on the vehicle's display screen, you'll probably have to go aftermarket. Pioneer and Kenwood make excellent head units with Apple and Android integration (still no "dock" - you have to get your own mounting hardware) where the vehicle's display becomes an extension of the phone display. BTW, "MyLink" is the GM equivalent of SYNC.

Unless you are manually turning on your headlights during the day, the dash brightness should only need to be set for night (with the lights on). The dash illumination goes bright automatically when the lights are off (i.e. daytime). However, a simple and free solution that I have used at home for alarm clocks and other digital displays that were too bright was to go to the local window tint shop and ask them for a few scraps of tint material that they've cut while tinting windows. They will usually have a variety of pieces in various levels of tint so that you can adjust how much you dim the display. The tint film is easy to cut and fairly simple to apply with soapy water and a squeegee (a credit card makes a good squeegee if you don't have one).

Actually they don't. They produce less heat than the other bulb types but their circuitry is also more sensitive to that heat so the more powerful ones (like headlights) have cooling fans. LEDs themselves produce almost no heat which is why they are so efficient at creating bright light with little power. However, the circuitry behind the LEDs that is necessary to control the power fed to the LEDs does produce heat. Not a lot of heat mind you, but enough that the sensitive circuits have to be cooled. You can grab the business end of an LED bulb while it's on and hardly notice any heat. When you grab the back end of the same bulb you'll notice that it is quite warm but nowhere near enough to burn your hand - unlike a halogen bulb which gets very hot.

You keep making that oil comparison and unfortunately it's just wrong. Yes, putting a different light source into a halogen reflector is wrong and will cause light scatter and glare (although LED design is improving rapidly and we should have LED bulbs that exactly mimic the position and orientation of the halogen filament before too long). But projector lamps are generally not a problem because the light is focused by the front lens rather than the intricate mirror bowl used in reflectors so the exact position of the light source is not nearly as important as the projector tube and lens design. I have done numerous HID and LED conversions in projector lamps on a variety of vehicles (I have the LMZ LEDs in my Mustang) and they have all produced a well controlled beam pattern with no more light scatter or glare than with the original bulb. But you don't have to believe me... ask Dan (or any of his customers) how well his HID kit works in Edge halogen projector lamps. In the case of upgrading halogen projectors, a better oil comparison would be replacing conventional oil with synthetic.

What you are seeing is installation of HID kits in halogen reflector housings. This is a VERY BAD thing to do and is actually illegal but almost never enforced. The problem is that reflectors are very carefully designed to control the light output created by a bulb with a light source (bulb filament) in a specific position and orientation. HID capsules produce a light source that is in a different position, has a different orientation (parallel to the bulb axis rather than perpendicular to the axis like a halogen bulb filament), and a different shape (the HID arc curves upward because of its own heat). This causes the output beam pattern to be poorly controlled creating light scatter and glare for other drivers. Some will argue that their particular HID kit has been redesigned or has bulb caps or some other excuse that they think will eliminate the light scatter and glare but they are all wrong. You can't change the physics... an HID kit in a halogen reflector lamp WILL cause glare no matter what a vendor says while trying to sell it. Projectors are generally a different story. The position, shape and orientation of the light source is much less important in a projector because it is the lens on the front of the lamp that focuses the light rather than any shaped mirror behind it. So with few exceptions, installing HID (or LED) kits in projector lamps will work quite well without causing any discomfort for other drivers. The H9 substitution for H11 is a different situation. The H9 bulb has exactly the same dimensions, filament position and shape as an H11 bulb. The only real difference is the lack of the black cap on the end but that is not usually a source of glare because it only limits the straight-line light output and the majority of a reflector lamp's output is coming via the reflector. Of course, the same comments about projectors apply to H9 - the light source is not nearly as important as the lens design. So for late model Edge applications, replacing H11 bulbs with H9 is a perfectly acceptable solution for increasing usable light output without distracting or annoying other drivers due to light scatter or glare.

Usually when one side of an HID system doesn't turn on reliably, a relay harness kit will solve the problem. The issue is commonly caused by marginal power feed through the stock wiring harness. You mention a relay so you may already have this type of harness kit in which case you should replace the relay that is making the odd noise. However, I suspect that the mechanic was actually referring to the HID ballast when he said "relay". If so, adding the proper relay harness kit may resolve both the lighting issue and the noise or you may have to replace the ballast on that side.