TheWizard

We were talking about turn signals and switchback LED bulbs... unrelated to headlights with or without DRLs. There are two ways that DRLs can be configured. One is to use the headlights at reduced power by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) which is a method of pulsing the voltage on and off very rapidly using a digital control module. Analog devices such as the filament of a halogen bulb don't react anywhere near quickly enough to respond to the individual pulses so they "see" the overall average voltage and produce a reduced power output. The advantage of doing this is that none of the power is wasted like reducing voltage using resistors does by generating heat. The other option for the DRLs is to use the front amber turn signal bulbs. When those bulbs are used for DRL, they are always run on the bright side (the turn signal circuit rather than the dimmer parking light circuit). This is what I thought you were describing because of the context of the thread.

If you got the DRLs programmed to the front parking/signal lamps then they will always use the bright "filament" (circuit) - bright flashing for turn signals and bright solid for DRL. The only time they would be dim is with the parking lights on with the ignition off (i.e. when the DRLs are not active). Also, many LED bulbs have very little difference between the dim and bright circuits which may contribute to your issue.

I'm afraid I'm not following your comment well... you installed an aftermarket HID headlight kit but they blink? I've never seen that. We're not talking about turn signals and hyper-flashing are we? Or headlights that won't turn on reliably? Can you describe the symptoms in more detail for us?

That is correct... in a projector lamp, the lack of a blacked out tip is actually an advantage because of the way the lens on the front focuses the light. In a reflector housing, the lack of capping won't cause any problems with the light pattern since the light source (the filament) is still in the same position and orientation but it could cause the appearance of excessive brightness or glare because of the direct light in addition to the original reflected light.

I now have the LMZ Platinum kit from V-LEDs. They are 5000K pure white (also available in 6000K cool white) and produce 4500 lumens each which is about 40% more than typical HID and double the output of the H9 halogen bulb they replaced, yet they use less power so they are safe with factory wiring. They also have adjustable mounting collars so that you can change the position and orientation of the LEDs to best suit your headlights. That isn't necessary with projector lamps but could be useful with reflectors. I had installed the VX3 kit from V-LEDs before these. They produce 2800 lumens which is not quite HID level but still an improvement over halogen. My concern with them is that they aren't fan cooled (heat sink only) and my headlights don't have much air space behind them. But they also don't use an external driver box (like the ballast in an HID kit) so installation is extremely simple. I ended up putting them in my fog lights after I got the LMZ kit for the headlights. They're now being discontinued so you can get them for just $80 a set.

If you don't want to make modifications like HID or LED then you could replace the H11 bulbs with H9 bulbs to get about 50% more brightness (1350 lumens to 2100 lumens). The tradeoff is a somewhat shorter bulb life but not so much that it would be a problem (I know people who got over six years out of H9 bulbs).

It's not the same thing at all... Yes, it is foolish to put HIDs in halogen reflector lamps. The reason is that the reflector is designed to focus light from a light source (the halogen bulb filament) that is in a very specific location and has a particular shape and orientation. Halogen bulbs have filaments that generally perpendicular to the axis of the bulb and more or less a straight line. HID capsules produce an arc that is inline to the bulb axis but that curves due to its own heat. Also, HID capsules position the arc farther from the base so it is in the wrong position for proper focus in the reflector. Projectors lamps are a different case altogether. The light source is enclosed in a reflective tube and the focus is accomplished by the lens at the front. The beam cutoff pattern for low beam is produced by a movable shutter panel behind the lens. This makes projector lamps (even those designed for halogen bulbs) far less susceptible to the light scatter and glare that you see with HID capsules in a halogen reflector housing. I have personally done HID conversions on more than a dozen different model vehicles with halogen projector lamps and they have all produced a well-defined beam pattern with proper cutoff pattern and no discernible light scatter or glare. You do have to be careful about aim because Edges seem notorious for having their headlights aimed too high from the factory. LED conversions are still in their infancy. I currently use them in aftermarket projector headlamps in my Mustang and they work very well. They are brighter even than HIDs and they are instant on with no warm up time like HIDs - useful with the flash-to-pass feature. They use a fraction of the current required for halogen or even HID but they are sensitive to voltage fluctuations so a plug-in capacitor setup (also known as a CAN-BUS adapter) is recommended to avoid cases of slight flickering at idle. I tried three different LED conversion kits before finding one that worked this well so they are not all created equal. I have not tried them in reflector housings but I have been told that the better ones have the LEDs positioned precisely where the halogen bulb filament would be so they work as plug-and-play replacements for the equivalent bulb. A better analogy than your oil question would be alkaline batteries versus NiCd/NiMH rechargeable batteries. They're all available in the same sizes and are often interchangeable depending on the device. But some devices won't work well with the slightly lower voltage of the NiCd/NiMH batteries. Similarly, some devices (halogen reflector lamps) don't work well with HIDs but for other devices (projector lamps) they are interchangeable.

Be very careful of tint shop installations. Many of them seem to think that since they do tint film on flat glass it qualifies them to do clear film on surfaces with multiple curves. I had a 3M clear bra installed at the same place that did my window tint - excellent tint installation, totally botched clear bra installation. I accepted it not knowing any better but over the next few weeks realized what a terrible patchwork job they had done and they were unable to fix despite repeated attempts. So I ended up having a specialist do it all over again and it now looks great! Places that do advertising wraps are a good choice if you don't have a shop nearby that specializes in clear bras. On white paint you will always be able to see the edges when you're close to the car but it's not a big deal. On dark colors, the clear bra virtually disappears even when you're quite close to the vehicle.

The new 4-door Yugo is called the "Wego".

Almost... a technique called Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is used to create a square wave signal of rapidly cycling full voltage and zero voltage. This cycling happens too fast for an incandescent (halogen) bulb to react (about 120 Hz or cycles per second) so it "sees" the average of the voltage and current provided. That average is controlled by the duty cycle - the ratio of on-time to off-time of the square wave signal. The bulbs don't actually turn on and off that fast, they just produce lower output because they aren't receiving full power all the time. PWM is used as a replacement for resistive dimmer circuits because it is more efficient. Resistors dissipate the unneeded power by generating heat, effectively wasting that power. PWM uses essentially no power at all during the off portion of the cycle and full power during the on portion so there is no waste. Unfortunately, digital circuits like LEDs and HID ballasts react fast enough to "see" the pulses rather than reacting to the overall average so they don't work well on PWM circuits. Basically, PWM is a digital technique designed to produce analog results and it doesn't play well with digital devices attached. Of course there are exceptions... if the modulation frequency is high enough to be faster than the attached load can react then the technique can be used with digital equipment (this is how class "D" amplifiers work).

I have not heard of any problems with HIDs interfering with the LED accent lighting. I can't think of any reason why they would - there's no connection between them... the LEDs are on the parking light circuit not the headlight circuit. One thing you will have to watch out for in Canada is your DRLs. Assuming the vehicle has halogen headlights from the factory (it's a moot point if it came with HIDs already), the headlights are used at reduced voltage for the DRLs. HID ballasts won't work properly in that situation so you'll have to find an agreeable dealer who will switch your DRLs from the headlights to the parking/turn signal lamps (it's done through programming).

Well, first you want to see if it has factory HIDs. If so, problem solved. If not, an aftermarket HID kit is an option although I would not buy a sub-$100 kit, especially in Toronto (because everything is so much more expensive in Canada). There are some really good HID kits available and then there are inexpensive kits such as sold by DDM Tuning or eBay. You can get a quality kit from daytimebrightlites.com for only $119 US - not that much more than what you were looking to spend. Get a 5000K kit to get white light without tending toward the blue end of the spectrum.

No, chances are that a 2012 does not have factory HIDs. HIDs were optional equipment even on the Limited so it is more likely that your SEL will have halogen headlights. You probably know this but just to be sure... 6000K is the color ("colour" in Canada) of the light and has no direct relation to the output (brightness) of the light produced. In fact, 6000K capsules produce less usable light than lower color temperatures because they are more blue and the human eye does not process blue light well. That's why factory HIDs are always in the 4100K - 4300K color temperature range. They want effective lighting not just someone's idea of a preferable color.

We found the same problem with our Sorento. We only use the amateur radio during events so a mag mount is the most convenient otherwise I would just go ahead and drill a hole for an NMO mount. The solution I came up with for occasional use was a flat piece of metal and four 3" industrial suction cups ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FE01JE2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00). I drilled holes in the corners of the metal plate and mounted the studs of the suction cups through the holes. Then when we need the mobile radio, I just stick the plate to the glass roof with the suction cups and plunk the mag mount antenna onto the plate. It has held without issue at 70+ mph for both days of a weekend event so I have no concerns of it flying off. 73s

HID lamps are not illegal in Canada if equipped from the factory. Technically, changing a halogen headlight to HID is illegal. And certainly, changing a halogen reflector headlamp to HID is a foolish and potentially dangerous thing to do because of the extraordinary glare it causes for other drivers. But replacing a halogen projector headlight (as in recent model Edges) with HID, while still illegal, generally does not cause the same glare issue and usually works quite well. There is one caveat that is specific to Canada - the daytime running lights (DRLs) will have to be changed. In normal halogen headlight equipped vehicles, the DRLs are the headlights run at lower voltage. HID ballasts don't function properly with that lower voltage so you'll have to have your dealer reprogram the DRLs to run the amber turn signal lamps instead of the headlights.

I was working for a major automobile distributor in Canada in the 80s and I remember how Ladas would come into Halifax by ship from Russia and many would need to have their corroded hoods replaced as soon as they were offloaded. By the mid-80s, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had become such a hot topic that some gas stations were refusing to sell gas to Ladas and the car's owners were scrambling to get Fiat emblems to replace the Lada emblems on their cars (the body styles were virtually identical).

Completely wrong about what? Let's see, I didn't say that LIDAR wasn't in common use only that it was not replacing RADAR. The industry's own estimates have LIDAR representing about 30% of speed detection devices nationwide. As I mentioned, LIDAR is especially useful in heavy traffic situations because it can target individual vehicles more precisely so I am not at all surprised that it was being used during rush hour. There is no way that they were targeting LIDAR from moving patrol cars... it simply is not possible. They could be using the guns from a stationary car through lowered side windows but not through any glass. I suppose I should have said that handheld police LIDAR guns don't come with photo capability built-in but there are external add-on accessories for a couple of brands (SpeedLaser of Atlanta makes such an accessory) to capture what's in the viewfinder when the gun is triggered. The two most popular police LIDAR guns (Stalker and Kustom Signals) have no such capability (yet) but they will probably add that in the near future. Still, photos are a relatively unimportant option used merely to eliminate arguments about "it wasn't me". If you get tagged by LIDAR, you have very little chance of beating the ticket.

The video you posted is misleading for several reasons including the fact that it shows an old LIDAR gun that doesn't have the processing power of more current ones and that it is being shot from inside a vehicle (through glass which disperses the beam). Even so, what you are viewing is not the acquisition time but the combination of acquisition and display time. How long it takes for the gun to display the speed is not a concern if it has already acquired your speed. I did some additional research and found that my 400 millisecond acquisition time was incorrect... it's actually 300 milliseconds. There are numerous websites for you to research and confirm this but here is one example: http://www.lasertech.com/Speed-Enforcement-Measurement.aspx Now, as for being able to slow down as you describe, let's assume you are an above average driver with an above average car driving under excellent weather conditions on clean, dry, unbroken pavement with good tires and brakes. It's safe to assume that you weren't anticipating the police being there because you would have slowed down in advance if you knew they were there. So that means the detector's laser alert was unexpected. The braking reaction time of an above average driver who is expecting the need (e.g. approaching a light that has been green for a while) is 0.7 second - already more than the 0.3 second LIDAR acquisition time but let's continue anyway. The reaction time of an above average driver to an unexpected braking event is about 1.25 seconds (it's even longer for a surprise event such as an animal running out in front of you). So we've totally blown away the actual speed acquisition time and you haven't even started slowing yet. If we go with your upper limit two second slowing time, you have 0.75 second left to scrub 15 mph off your speed. An above average driver in ideal street conditions can brake with a force of about .75G or 24 feet per second per second without risking losing control (a professional driver under controlled conditions on a track can achieve 1G braking with some street legal cars). In 3/4 second that's 18 fpsps. Your 80mph starting speed is 117fps and your 65mph ending speed is 95fps, a difference of 22fps... close but a little more than you could reduce speed in the time available without risking losing control. Again, this information is readily available but here are a couple of links: Reaction time: http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/reactiontime.html Stopping distance and time: http://www.csgnetwork.com/stopdistinfo.html Since I assume you are an honest guy, the only explanation is that your detector actually picked up the targeting of someone in front of you and you were able to react to that before being targeted. That still shows the value of having a detector but without violating the physics.

I'm afraid you're dreaming if you think you actually beat a laser ticket. First of all, a LIDAR gun can get an initial speed reading AND a second confirmation reading in a total of about 400 milliseconds... less time than it takes you to move your foot from the accelerator to the brake. But even if your "second or two" was real, you still could not scrub that excess 15 mph off your speed in that time "without breaking a sweat" because that would mean about 0.8G deceleration which is standing on the brakes fairly hard. You must have been one of those very lucky people whose detector picked up the extremely narrow spread of the laser targeting a vehicle in front of you. Otherwise you would not have been able to avoid a ticket - it's a matter of physics.

That may be one of the most misleading things I've read in a while. First some facts... LIDAR (LASER) is not replacing RADAR in any police agency in the entire country mostly because it is so much more expensive but also because it has many limitations compared to RADAR. It is being used to supplement RADAR but is still not the primary speed measuring device anywhere. LIDAR requires a stable and stationary platform eliminating its use in moving vehicles which is very common with dash mount RADAR. LIDAR doesn't work in inclement weather conditions and has been banned from use after dark due to fears of eye damage to targeted drivers. And no, the type of LIDAR that is used by LEOs does not take photos... only permanent mount photo speed detectors do that and those are in extremely limited use. Why spend five times as much for a LIDAR based photo speed detector when RADAR based is just as effective and can be used at night and in the rain? RADAR detectors are not the magic solution to never getting a speeding ticket - never speeding is the only sure way to guarantee that. But RADAR detectors are useful tools even if only used as a reminder to watch your speed. I have had a remote mount RADAR detector in every car I have owned for the past 20 years and I have not been ticketed in over 40 years. That's not because of the detector (although there have been a couple of times where it has helped) but because I don't drive excessively fast or in a way that attracts attention. Still, the detector is a useful reminder that there are speed traps out there. These days, so few people use detectors that police often don't bother to turn off their dash mount guns anymore. They are finding that LIDAR is only worth the expense, extra training, weather and location limitations in situations where the selectivity is a great benefit due to multi-lane heavy traffic. So it is being used as an added weapon for their arsenal rather than a replacement for older technology.

Unfortunately, you can't do that with a warranty repair (at least not for the manufacturer's warranty) because the dealer is required by Ford to retain (and in some cases return) the parts. District supervisors do spot checks on warranty claims every few weeks and then sign-off for the dealer to dispose of the replaced parts.

There is no such thing as a good halogen bulb that produces 5000K light. Halogen bulbs always produce light in the 3200K range. Bulbs that claim to be 5000K halogen are actually ordinary bulbs with blue tinted glass to filter out the yellow portion of the light color. Unfortunately, the yellow range is where a good portion of the bulb's lumens (brightness) are produced. So any bulb that has such a blue tint will produce less (sometimes far less) overall light output than the same bulb with clear glass. Some manufacturers change the filament design to increase the light output in order to compensate for the filtering of the blue tinted glass but that significantly shortens the life of the bulb. The above information applies to both standard iodine-cycle halogen bulbs as well as halogen infrared reflective (HIR) bulbs although HIR bulbs inherently produce more light for the same amount of power input.

I have V-LED LMZ LED headlights in my Mustang and they work great. Light output seems equivalent to HID and like all LEDs, they come on at full brightness instantly and they seem to have more consistent and accurate color temperature. However, they are somewhat pointless in this discussion because they're designed for halogen conversion and nobody makes them to fit an HID D3S housing.

Sorry, what I meant was to test that you have output from the relay... not a particular voltage output but any output at all. The idea is to test that the relay is actually tripping with the reduced voltage across the coil and thus providing power to the ballast. Some relays can be sensitive to voltage levels across the coil and sometimes relays just don't work reliably at all. It's always worth testing and eliminating that basic possibility before getting into deeper troubleshooting. I guess my discussion of lowered voltage at the relay coil due to PWM led you to think lowered voltage on the output side when what I really meant was a power/no power check of the relay output.

Okay, now I don't know if I'm really that bad at explaining troubleshooting suggestions or you're just being deliberately obtuse. I got my degree in electronics probably before you were born and I am well aware of how a relay works. You seem to have missed a basic tenet of troubleshooting - never assume anything. You seem to think that just because you've been told that this configuration always works for the supplier that it could not possibly fail in your particular case. My suggestion is to use your meter with the headlight switch in the auto position to actually test whether you have output power from the relay going to the HID ballast. But you go ahead and just assume what you want and keep wondering why things aren't working. In the time it took you to read this, you could have already tested it.