Along with my the improvements I’ve made to my fog lights, I’ve also been looking around to upgrade my headlights. For those who have been doing any research at all, you are probably well aware that the HID system in the ST3 is both underpowered when it comes to output and wattage, but also very weak compared to the OEM systems that are avilable today. From my understanding, Ford decided to go the route of a “green” design and use less power (25W vs the standard 35W ballasts) and also wanted to say under the U.S. requirement of “anything over 2000 lumens requires auto adjustments and washer sprayers” so they stuck right at 2000 lumens. What that translates to is HIDs that are basically the same output as halogens, but called HIDs for marketing purposes (in my opinion). Anyways, I thought they sucked after having my last 3 cars with HIDs so I wanted to make them better.
I’ve been poking around the idea of a complete retrofit, swapping out for new projectors, clear lenses, and higher wattage ballasts and bulbs. However, I don’t have the bulbs (pun intended) to cut apart my $4K worth of leadlight housings I have to “give it a try” at this point and while I am still waiting to hear back from some retrofit companies, I wanted to see what was possible from a wattage increase by itself. Now the D8S bulbs that come from the factory are very unique, only being used on a few Ford cars and all with the 25W ballasts. No aftermarket setups available at this point. Dang, need to move on to option two. If you look at the back of the headlight housing, all of the bulb sizes are listed that fit into the headlight assembly. For the HID’s, it mentions both a D8S bulb and a D3S bulb. The D3S is still a Hg free (murcury free) bulb, but it is a little more widely used and also has much higher outputs. Turns out that the D3S bulb can be used in the housing with just a simple modification which is about 15 seconds worth of effort. This option shows some promise, now it was time to see what was available out there.
I started poking around on the HIDplanet forum as well as on the “Headlight Junkies” page on Facebook and lucked out with finding someone selling an OEM Osram (same company as our HIDs) 35W D3S bulb/ballast setup out of a later model Audi. Seemed to fit just what I was looking for: 35W system, D3S bulbs, 3400 lumens of output… Perfect! Hit the guy up, sent them out a day later, had them in my hand within the week. Ended up paying about $180 shipped. Might have been able to get them for a little cheaper, but wasn’t really worth the battle as I have no idea what they should have been. They were OEM, working, and fit everything I was looking for. The ballast info is posted in a picture down below, but the bulbs I picked up were 66340HBI bulbs
Now that you have the back story, here’s how you can do it to your car (I take no responsibility for messing anything up on your end. It will still require you to do your own research, but this is my story and how it worked out for me).
I’ve been poking around the idea of a complete retrofit, swapping out for new projectors, clear lenses, and higher wattage ballasts and bulbs. However, I don’t have the bulbs (pun intended) to cut apart my $4K worth of leadlight housings I have to “give it a try” at this point and while I am still waiting to hear back from some retrofit companies, I wanted to see what was possible from a wattage increase by itself. Now the D8S bulbs that come from the factory are very unique, only being used on a few Ford cars and all with the 25W ballasts. No aftermarket setups available at this point. Dang, need to move on to option two. If you look at the back of the headlight housing, all of the bulb sizes are listed that fit into the headlight assembly. For the HID’s, it mentions both a D8S bulb and a D3S bulb. The D3S is still a Hg free (murcury free) bulb, but it is a little more widely used and also has much higher outputs. Turns out that the D3S bulb can be used in the housing with just a simple modification which is about 15 seconds worth of effort. This option shows some promise, now it was time to see what was available out there.
I started poking around on the HIDplanet forum as well as on the “Headlight Junkies” page on Facebook and lucked out with finding someone selling an OEM Osram (same company as our HIDs) 35W D3S bulb/ballast setup out of a later model Audi. Seemed to fit just what I was looking for: 35W system, D3S bulbs, 3400 lumens of output… Perfect! Hit the guy up, sent them out a day later, had them in my hand within the week. Ended up paying about $180 shipped. Might have been able to get them for a little cheaper, but wasn’t really worth the battle as I have no idea what they should have been. They were OEM, working, and fit everything I was looking for. The ballast info is posted in a picture down below, but the bulbs I picked up were 66340HBI bulbs
Now that you have the back story, here’s how you can do it to your car (I take no responsibility for messing anything up on your end. It will still require you to do your own research, but this is my story and how it worked out for me).
