Our Explorer prerunner needed something more for the regular headlights. Because of the short design of the headlights we always found ourselves struggling to see when it is really dark. I upgraded the bulbs to higher output halogen bulbs, and we saw a little bit of an improvement, but still not enough. We decided an HID conversion kit was worth a try.
We contacted HID Xenon Headlights.com for a set of their HID conversion bulbs for our Explorer and it comes with everything you need to convert your halogen bulbs to HIDs. After doing the install there really isn’t another mod you can do to your prerunner that is this easy.
You can see from the picture above you get:
- 2 HID bulbs
- 2 Ballasts
- Adaptors
- 2 Mounting Brackets
There are also a pair of resistors you would use for European cars. I haven’t seen too many Mercedes prerunners before so I don’t think you will need them.
When you order the HIDs you get to choose the light color. We chose the 6000K colored bulbs. This is a really cool white light without being too blue.
One thing you will need before you start the install is a set of latex gloves. You do not want to get the oil from your fingers on the bulbs. It will cause them to burn out prematurely.
After opening the hood we detached the factory bulbs from their mount, we disconnected the bulbs and connected the HIDs. The connection goes to the ballast with the supplied connector.
Then it was time to find a place to mount the ballasts. We found a place on the core support that we could mount them, and they would not get too much dirt flung on them. The kit comes with 2 mounting brackets.
After we found where we were going to mount them we trimmed the excess metal on the bracket for a more “custom” install (ok start laughing).
We then wanted to see what a difference they were going to make so we shut the lights off in the shop and snapped this picture. The driver side has the HID installed and the passenger side still has the halogen bulb.
We just repeated the steps for the passenger side and that was it. This final image shows both lights on.
If your prerunner has factory halogen bulbs in it you owe it to yourself to visit www.hidxenonheadlights.com and order up a set of their HID Lights. They are only $79.99 for the kit. We plan on getting a set for our Ranger prerunner too.
