New Mondeo headlights

[Chriss]

Hello, first post.

Took delivery of a new Mondeo in December (1.5 TDCi estate with Sync). 2500 miles later and I love it, but the headlights are terrible. They're bog-standard and of course, now I wish I'd been able to order the LED option, but it's a company car, so...

Is there an easy, aftermarket upgrade available? I've done a fair bit of Googling and drawn a blank. HID isn't possible as there's no self-levelling and no headlamp washers, plus that'll be what £250? And I don't fancy spending that.

Any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks in advance.

 

 

[Jonro2009]

Hi.

Not strictly true about the washers/levellers. You can easily fit an aftermarket fit HID upgrade using CANBUS ballasts. It would be in a projector lens right? The MOT regs state that 'washers and levellers must be working, where fitted' it's a bit of a loop hole and very ambiguous wording. With it being a company car I guess you won't have it come MOT time so it won't be a problem. You can buy a decent kit from a reputable company for less than £100 HID Direct are a good company.

Fitting them is a PITA! it's a bumper off job, or pull it away at the very least. The back of the lights are right up against the bulk head and slam panel so you can't get in, great in a roadside bulb failure! Once you have access to the back of the lights it's an absolute breeze though. I could do my last couple of cars (no bumper removal) in less than 30mins.

Your other option is to upgrade the bulbs to the best possible filament bulbs, you still have the access problems though. In my experience the best bulbs are OSRAM NightBreaker plus, the light output is excellent but they have a shorter lifespan than OEM.

If you go down the route of HID then I would always go for 5300K bulbs as the light is closest to natural daylight, but that's just my own preference.

I would be keen to hear how you get on, keep us posted?

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[Chriss]

Thanks for getting back to me.

I'm so not going to be pulling bumpers off etc. I haven't thought to even look at access yet and have only had the bonnet up a couple of times. Maybe I'll take my chances at the stealer and see if they'll fit better bulbs gratis. If I whine enough, maybe... I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers.

[Jonro2009]

Good luck with that one! I doubt the dealer will do anything at all. The lights are poor though and up here you defo need decent lights. It's like holding up two candles sometimes!

Yeah, access is lousy and have a proper look. I took it to Halfords (against my better judgement but to see if they had a sneaky way in but they hadn't even seen the new mk5 so no use. I went and spoke to Ford mechanics and they confirmed what the Internet and YouTube had said.....bumper off. They reckon it would be 40 mins per side so would charge 2 hours labour. I argued it as the computer is pre programmed to give a time for each job, in this case 40mins for one side. They confirmed that 1 side would require bumper off that's why it would be 40 mins, fair enough but they can't then say it would be 40 mins to do the other side as the bumper would already be off so it would just be the time taken to remove headlight - 5 mins and then change bulbs 10 mins tops refit headlight 5 mins, whole thing 20 mins which would make the whole job 1hr. They were having none of it so I left it.

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