gtyates

If you have halogens, get used to it. The high beams are useless on that generation of the Edge. We had a '13 with halogens. One thing we did was to replace the bulbs with a +50% version from Vosla. No, it does not increase output a full 50%, but the increase is definitely noticeable. High beams were still terrible due to alignment, and there is no way to fix. These headlamps use 1 bulb only and have a shutter for high/low beams. You can hear it move when you turn high beams on or off. It is a terrible design.

I assume you have halogen, and not the optional HID's. I just put some Vosla halogen bulbs in my son-in-law's 2016 Sport. Even though they are still halogens, dramatic difference. From the factory the halogens that put in are the "long life" type, so they actually put out less light so they can last longer. Terrible bulbs. The Vosla bulbs I bought are +100, which I know does not really mean a 100% increase, but the different is dramatic. Purchase from candlepowerstore web site. In our Edge as well as my Sport Trac I also have Vosla bulbs.

Another idea is to stay with halogen bulbs, but upgrade. I am using a Vosla +50 halogen bulb and my wife and I are both pleased with the result. From what I have read about the HID conversion, you will probably have to lower your headlamp aim to reduce glare to oncoming traffic, so in my humble opinion that would almost defeat the purpose of the upgrade. With our Vosla bulbs we have not had a single person flick bright lights at us to indicate our bulbs were too bright. I got my bulbs from the candlepower store web site. They are not blue bulbs, but clear.  The problem we have is the design of the projector, which is decent for straight-ahead light but terrible for side lighting.

I would suggest going back halogen as well. I put some Vosla +50 bulbs in our recently. Very noticeable difference, even over the Vosla +30 we had in there for about 2 years. Bought mine from the candlepower store web site. But I will  add, regardless of what you do, our headlamps suck! No side vision.

On 1/7/2019 at 1:26 PM, Nick Halstead said:

 

it doesn't, to get better width you would have to swap the whole projector. Lexus LS460 has one of the widest beams on the market. Here's an old old old thread on it
https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/forum/general-discussion/general-discussion-aa/36835-ls460-bi-xenon-or-ls460-help-me-choose-bcause-i-love-them-both-comp-pics-inside

Thanks Nick. That is my understanding of basic physics as well...  HID kits might make my lights "brighter", but I am more concerned about dodging the deer that run out of the woods to my side as I drive at night. My neighbor hit a deer a couple of months ago just outside of our neighborhood. He, too, has projector headlamps and he did not see it run out until it was too late.. So far I HATE projectors! My Sport Trac has reflectors and the usable light is so much better! Projectors may be better for straight ahead vision, maybe, but....

On 1/2/2019 at 9:48 AM, rwf78155 said:

I changed mine over to the HID kit by daytimebrightlites.com and they were amazing !

Honest question. How does changing to an HID bulb increase the side vision problem? Sincere question.

First off, yes, these headlights suck! There is very little side vision, which is also a  problem for us as we live in an area with deer everywhere.. It is my biggest gripe with the vehicle, by far. One thing I did was switch to a halogen bulb made by VOSLA. It is a +30 % and I would agree that it is at least that much of an increase. It is not one of the blue bulbs, as they are useless. The light output is a bit whiter than standard halogen, rated @ 3500k. So far my wife and I are both happier with these bulbs, but still, the side light output is terrible..

Well, like many  others, I have now been bitten by the failed brake booster. Edge is at dealer now for replacement, which of course they do not have the part and it is on order.. Fortunately mine qualifies for the campaign, but of course, there's more.. My HCU is dead as well. Over $1000 repair. Ford, why is this not covered as well??? No excuse in this. I have been a loyal Ford owner for over 30 years, but this is pushing me over the edge as to whether or not I will remain one. And why is this campaign not eligible for a rental car from Ford? This is a SAFETY issue! And the part is apparently hard to get.

What happened to us is we were driving home last Friday and a car pulled out in front of me. I had to hit the brakes hard, which is when I assume the diaphragm ripped, and immediately afterwards I had no brake boost. To stop it I had to use manual shifting to gear down to help it stop as I drove to to my dealer. We like the truck as far as comfort, features, etcc., but...

I have the same complaint on our '13 Edge. Hate the projectors! They are fine on the interstate, but they suck on back-roads. I did 2 things to help mine. One is, the headlamps were actually aimed a little low, so I raised them a bit using my garage door as a backdrop and taking measurements to make sure I did not go too high. The second thing I did was a bulb upgrade. I put some bulbs made by Vosla, the +30 bulbs, and they have made a usable difference in vision. Still no real side vision, and the scenario that lm700 describes is still a bit of an issue, but it is better than it was.

I wish that someone made a light that could replace those stupid "bling" lights that are in the bumper with an actual usable light for night use. I couldn't care less about DRL's, but I wish someone made a light for the bumper that actually worked..

Maybe Ford has realized the complaints are real, because the new 2019 Edge has LED headlamps and fog lights...but it does not help us current owners at all.

Any idea on how to improve sound quality from the factory Sirius radio? This is a 2013 SEL with MFT. I have upgraded speakers to INfinity's. Radio sounds really good, cd's sound really good, playing from a USB sounds really good, but the Sirus sound quality sucks most of the time, but at times it only sounds bad.. Very tinny sounding basically. My XM radios in our 2 Explorers sound great (they are plug directly into head unit radios). Is there that large of a difference in XM compared to Sirus?

I just bought a CPO 2016 Edge SEL for my wife and we both love it. The only thing we don't like is how dim the low beams headlights are. I'd like to swap out the OEM bulbs with better aftermarket ones. I really don't want to make any modifications. I'm deciding between the Phillips X-tremeVision and Crystal Vision Ultra. I had thought about only replacing the low beams since the high beams seem to work pretty well. So, thoughts on which version of bulb to get? Should I replace both low and high beams? Also, the car has factory DRLs, so which bulbs do those use? Thanks in advance!

Migel, my only suggestion is to avoid the blue tinted bulbs. I used to use them, but honestly they produce less usable light, not more. In our 2004 Explorer we have the Phillips X-treme bulbs for our son and he really likes them. What we found with the blue tinted bulbs is that driving at night, especially in rain/fog/snow, was terrible. The blue light gets lost basically. In our 2013 Edge we are running Vosla +30 bulbs, but they are HIR halogen bulbs. Honestly just moving to a standard bulb vs. the factory "Long Life" bulbs will make a significant different in usable light. Long life bulbs are useless because the only way to gain bulb life is to decrease output.

I will say that the v1 lights actually had horizontal light throw that would illuminate the sides (they were the Phillip led drop in kids that he epoxied into the ford housings). The v2s have more of a vertical light beam pattern.

 

I will clarify. Usable in the fact they actually function as DRL. You do get some side illumination, but not much.

 

Now, my switchbacks actually give off some light and do a decent job of filling in some dark spots.

 

My apologies, again, if my initial description was misleading.

 

I havent moved my headlight switch from auto since driving off the light 6 years ago (well, thats a lie... my dealer turns it off during service for one reason or another).

Candurin, thanks for the clarification on the DTBL lights. If I were to replace the useless bling lights I would want something that can add some side illumination. That is my biggest gripe with the projector headlights that we have. Front vision is pretty good, especially with the Vosla +30 bulbs we put in, but side vision is terrible..

Just this evening I was driving home form the office. It was around 7:00 and definitely dark. As I am driving up an unlit parkway all of sudden I see red reflectors in front of me. You guessed it, a Nissan Rogue driving using those stupid DRL light pipes and NO other lights turned on.. I thought the Rogue, especially the ones with the light pipes, had Autolamp. If so, then they purposely had no lights on, even worse.. The irony is the as I passed her I could see that the driver appeared to be leaning a bit forward in the seat, as if straining to see the road. DUH!!

Thats why I put dans DRLs in place of the light tubes in my 2012 the second he made them (I believe cellbine and I were the first adopters of v1). Some actual usable light.

Candurin, you are saying that the lights offered by DTBL actually do have usable light at night? I have seen his kits, but I have no interest in DRL's, I only want to have more usable light at night, which is when it is needed. I also see his newest kits have a signal repeater, which I also do not have any interest in.

And to ONEDGE16, I have seen an occasional European car here in Middle TN that has the rear fog light. My impression is it looks like a brake light is stuck on so it gives a perception that the car is slowing down. The biggest light in bad weather issue I continuously see is the simple fact that some folks absolutely refuse to turn on their headlamps/tail lamps in bad weather. If I ever get to pass them I will see about 90% of the time that they have DRL's on, but that does no good for people approaching you from the rear. I also notice it is generally Nissan and Honda drivers around here that can't seem to find the headlamp switch.. just an observation. Instead of DRL's, the motoring public would be better served if all cars had auto headlamps tied into the windshield wipers. Our Fords do, and it is a great feature. It does not solve the lights not on in fog issue, but at least in rain and at night the headlamps and tail lamps will be on for all to see. Rant over..

I am used to having a dedicated switch just for fog lamps. On my 2017 US model Edge, I see the lamp triangles below the bumper, but I can't seem to find a switch for them. Are they part of the running lights now?

 

Scott

Scott, no one actually answered your question. The lights you see on your bumper are DRL's basically, but they are wired directly into your electrical system and there is no switch for them.

As to the fog lights discussion, I really like having them on my Sport Trac as well as my older Explorer. On a rainy night they are very helpful in aiding the ability to see the often faded lane markings, especially on unlit back roads and highways. I also agree with others comments that swapping out the fog lamp bulbs for a "bluer" look is pointless, and in some cases dangerous to other drivers.

As to DRL's they are pointless. In Minnesota a very comprehensive study was done on the use of DRL's and it found the benefit was negligible. A lot of insurance companies, including mine, do not even give a discount for them anymore.

I wish our 2013 Edge had fog lights instead of the absolutely useless "bling" lights in the lower bumper. Those lights put out "0" useful light and they are a very high color temp so they almost impossible to match with headlamp bulbs.

For anyone interested, here is the Minnesota study: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TRS/2011/TRS1009.pdf

I am using Bosch Clear Advantage blades. Bought from Rockauto.

For windshield treatment I am using a product called Aquapel. Much better than Rain-X. Aquapel bonds ot teh windshield and seems to last longer. It has been a year some I treated all 3 of our vehicles and the water still beds up and rolls off. Almost never have to run wipers at high speed and rarely at regular speed. Usually a delayed wipe is plenty. Aquapel was purchased on Amazon.

Normally our generation of Edge uses a 9012 bulb. I just put some Vosla +30 bulbs in our 2013 Edge and we are very pleased with the results. The light color is around 3400k, so not quite as white looking as what you purchased, but the light output is 1875 lum. and we are getting very good results as far as usable light. I have tried using the blue tinted bulbs, and although the light looks whiter it is not really any brighter as far as usable light. We also found that that on dark road, especially in the rain, that the blue tinted bulbs were useless.. We were using Silverstar 9012's, but again, switched to the Vosla bulbs. The Vosla bulbs are used in GMC trucks, and the GM part number is 23342527.

To answer your question on seating of the bulbs, as long as the tabs are in place properly I di not think direction is really relevant. Others can chime on on that as well.

I mentioned this in another thread on here, but on our Edge it did set a CEL, but on my Sport Trac it did not until it had gotten almost impossible to start the truck after a fill-up. When my Sport Trac purge valve was first going bad I read a Sport Trac discussion that indicated if I held the gas pedal when starting after a fill-up it would start. This worked until I had time to order and replace. Got mine for both truck from rockauto and I went with a Motorcraft branded one again.

Update on the new Vosla +30 bubls I just installed. We had to run some errands this evening so I got in some night-time driving. Very pleased with the performance of the Vosla bulbs. They are not "white" like the Silverstars were, but the actual usable light is much improved, Definitely an improvement over the Phillips LL bulbs that the factory put in there! No regret on making the switch. The GM bulb # is 23342527. The only place I hah\ve found these bulbs as just Vosla bulbs is through a web site called candlepower. The "GM" bulbs are clearly marked as Vosla HIR2 +30 on the bulb base.

 

Actually installed a set of these a week or so ago. Pretty decent difference.

I just ordered these bulbs for mine. Thanks for your review of them. I have been using Silver Stars, but honestly on a rainy night on a dark road, especially new pavement, the Silver Stars are useless. After using the HID look blue tinted bulbs for a little while I have been slowly switching all of our vehicles to high output but non-tinted bulbs. In my Sport Trac I do have Silver Stars, but they are no blue tinted so the output is nice. I thought about an HID kit for the Edge, but as I read about people having issues with the kits not working real well with autolamp and then people having to lower the aim of their lights due to people flashing them due to lights being too bright I just do not see any advantage to the HID kits. Maybe some day I will swap out my headlamp housings for OE HID, but for now the Vosla bulbs will have to do.

Hi Mact and everyone that's reading this post..I have an 07 Edge with 137,000 miles.(It sat in my garage 2 days without me starting it prior to this happening) this morning it didn't start right up as it usually does, instead it cranked over fast (battery is good) but didn't want to start, I cranked it about 10 seconds, then stopped cranking, then maybe another 10 and stopped cranking, then on the 3rd try of cranking over good and fast it finally started up. I drove it about 2 miles and it ran great with no problems. came back home and shut it off, it started right back up that time and several more times with no problem. I let it sat for 2 1/2 hours, went out and started it right up again no problem, drove about 4 miles to get some Lucas fuel injector cleaner, added it to the tank and filled up with gas, I was at almost 3/4 tank before fill up. shut it off and restarted a few more times with no problem...could it be my purge valve failing? I didn't fill it with gas before this happened. could it be a fuel injector leaking down or the fuel pump leaking down after the Edge sits a couple days. any help is appreciated...Thanks in advance..

ddedge, your issue does not sound like the purge valve,.In my case, actually both cases, the only starting issue I had occurred after filling up. Also on my Sport Trac when the valve was going out, on occasion I would get a faint gas smell in my garage. My Sport Trac did not show a CL code until the valve was just about dead. I am lucky that the Edge tripped a code earlier so my wife did not get stuck at the gas station unable to start it.

Anyone tried the Vosla +30 HIR2 bubs? I am seeing very good reviews on them. They are the OE bulbs that GM uses on several products. They are rated 1875 lumens and are around 3400k color temperature.

Follow-up. I received and replaced my valve on Dec. 29. We have had several start cycles and 1 fill-up of gas and so far there are no starting issues, despite the fact that we have temps in the teens. So, it appears that my Forscan software got this one correct. Easy repair. One tip, remove the valve first before disconnecting the gas fumes line. It is a bit tricky to get it loose, but once you remove the valve it is easy to do.

Thanks macbwt. I don't quite have the tools laying around that he uses in the video. When I pulled the code using Forscan the purge valve is #1 in the list of potential causes. Since I had seen this exact problem before in my Sport Trac I felt confident in spending the $24 for the replacement part. Supposed to arrive tomorrow, so we shall see. So far the CEL has not popped back on, though there could be pending code that I have not scanned for. I will add that on Christmas Eve I filled up the tank up and for the first time I had the hard start symptom after filling up. It did start, but it did not want to..

@gtyates

A8 maps SD card has been available for sometime now. It might have significant updates from the A7 card.

 

http://ford.navigation.com/product/Catalog/Catalog_Ford_Explorer_2014/U.S.-AND-CANADA-SYNC-NAVIGATION-SYSTEM-MAP-UPDATE-VERSION-A8/sku/GM5T-19H449-AB/en_US/FordNA/USD

Omar, I recently purchased an A8 card. My brorther's subdivision finally exists... lol! Still no excuse in the vendor Telenav, being so slow to update our nav cards.

Life is full of irony. Yesterday my wife mentioned that the CEL popped on while she was driving home. I hooked up my code reader, opened Forscan, and sure enough it is the EVAP code. Since the purge valve is a notorious problem on these vehicles I reset the code for now and ordered a replacement from Rockauto. SInce we are not seeing any other symptoms my valve must be on the way out, but it is still functioning to some degree. We do have an extended warranty to 100k, but deductible is $200, so I will fix this on myself. Part was only $24.