Chinook RV

Hi - 2003 Premier with single sealed beam headlights that are original. On our first road trip we found ourselves driving at night for the first time and I felt like there were two candles sitting on the bumper lighting our way. Since these headlights are specific to the E series I've only been able to find OE type replacements. I'd like to upgrade to halogen or LEDs but there seems to be fitment problems with some of the kits offered for the E-series vans.

Anyone upgrade their headlights? What type did you get and where did you get them?

pdemarest wrote:Hi - 2003 Premier with single sealed beam headlights that are original. On our first road trip we found ourselves driving at night for the first time and I felt like there were two candles sitting on the bumper lighting our way.

I have to laugh at the "two candles," because that's exactly how I described my buddy's headlights on his 2003 E-450 after I drove it one night. Not that the OEM Ford are anything to write home about, but he'd made it worse by buying a set of headlight bodies (i.e. the lenses) from an eBay vendor. They made the original four candlepower lights look deluxe!

One note though: I'm surprised you have the sealed beam headlights. I thought those were more often on work type vans. Both my '99 Chinook and my buddy's other-brand 2003 E-450 cutaway have the regular, non-sealed beam headlights (i.e. there is a "permanent" body and lens and you only replace the bulb). I've never seen the sealed beams on a Chinook. Not that you don't know your own rig (maybe someone converted them).

At any rate, my buddy upgraded to HID headlights made by a fellow who mostly does Ford vans. His company name is Vantage Optics. You can specify a variety of features when ordering. I haven't driven his rig at night since we put them in, but he says they are much brighter -- and they certainly look brighter when he's following me (not in a bad way - they have a precise/adjustable cut-off line). But that's as close as I have come to driving with them myself.

Install wasn't too bad. Few hours, including hemming and hawing.

I *think* Vantage Optics does sealed beam ones as well, but I wasn't paying attention to those since I don't know anyone who has that type.

BTW, this is one case where you can be glad you don't have the 2008-newer front end. Those headlight bodies are super pricey! (Some newer van owners were asking him about having some made and he reported back on the price of the housings (which he uses to make the improved lights.)

I haven't done any experimenting with just changing the bulb (but that info wouldn't apply to sealed beam headlights anyway).

Just to be sure you have sealed beam, here are the "housing and bulb" type that I have (and I think most Chinooks and non-commercial vans have). In contrast, the sealed beam headlights are symmetrically rectangular and then there is a larger non-clear plastic surround to fill in the angled inboard section. It'll get larger if you click.
BG

Blu - I think you may be right. My headlights look exactly like the ones in your photo - I think I just assumed they were sealed beams. Going out right now to check...

Okay. I vow to never again order parts after midnight. You're right - they are a bulb replacement style rather than sealed beams. The plastic lenses are yellowed somewhat so that's not helping night vision.

So, a couple of questions: Can I get new lenses for these or do I just order the whole housing and how do I get these things out to replace them? Also, can I use any type of bulb in there? I'd like to go to those Sylvania Silver Stars.

Meanwhile, Amazon - be prepared to receive the two sealed beams I ordered two days ago...

Upon further review of my Amazon order it appears that I have the correct headlight housing with bulb on the way. I'm hoping the bulbs are halogen but if I'm not happy with the brightness I can always swap them out for the Sylvania bulbs. So, now I just need to figure out how to do the replacement. Some videos on line that look helpful.

Replacement is "easy"

Above each light assembly are two black tabs. Push them back to unlock them, while pulling upward to release the light. (Make sure you also keep the assembly from faliing out.). Once released, you can pull it out enough to unscrew the socket.

Reverse the procedure to install the new light assembly. But that's where it got tricky for me.

One light went back in easily. Lined everything up, pushed its two tabs down and it locked in place.

The other one... well, one tab refused to go down and lock. Drove me crazy until I finally Dremeled a slightly more open bevel on the light assembly rear pin, so that the tab's bottom could slip around the pin.

Basically, each vertical sliding tab has a bottom opening that fits around a pin between two washer like areas close together. Apparently that tab was slightly too thick or bent to slip into the open pin spot, without me sanding down a slight bevel on the plastic washer like area, to help guide the tab into place.

With luck yours will relock easily, but I wanted to give my solution if anyone's replacement assembly has the same problem.

Kev

You can sometimes polish the plastic lenses. It's basically a mild rubbing compound and/or wetsand. 3M, Novus, and others make the compounds.

Or you can buy new housings. My only advice is that you might want to buy OEM Ford ones. This is where my buddy went "wrong." He ordered a brand called "something eyes" (or similar) from eBay and the lenses were awful. They actually threw unicorn rainbows out at a 45º angle instead of white light. Hideous. (This is not the Vantage Optics HID upgrade he has now; but the first "cheap" attempt to replace just the clouded original housings.)

As kdarling said, the housings aren't too difficult to replace. It was slightly difficult on a previous van that had seen rust belt action, but not hard at all on his E-450 that has never been up north.

The ones I ordered from Amazon got good reviews but several users reported that you should retain all the old hardware as the stuff that comes with it doesn't seem to work well in terms of fitment. I did see a lot of options for the E-series vans where reviewers also complained about the "rainbow" effect of some of the lights and others that couldn't be fitted properly without major modifications. Hopefully these will fit but if not I'll bite the bullet and head to Ford.

On polishing the lenses - I've had this done on several vehicles with some success but my lenses are pretty far gone so I'm going the whole enchilada route.

I have polished the lenses on my 2004 Premier as well as the 95 Jeep Grand Cherokee I used to have with good success. Mequiars has a couple of products. I used Mequiars # 17 for years. I now use their PlastX product. With both I used a power drill and pad taking the lenses from foggy yellow back to clear.

(Once, when the Jeep was really bad, I used the Meguiars, then Micro Mesh sanding sheets, then finishing again with the Meguiars to bring them back. FWIW I use Micro-Mesh on guitar finishes. 1500-12000 grit)

Yes, if you go the aftermarket housing/lens route, you may want to transfer some of your OEM parts over. When my buddy put in the "groovy rainbow" housing/lenses, we found it worked better to remove some of the Ford parts and move them over. I can't remember it too well (has been a few years), but there were some prongy/ball things... maybe in the corners? The OEM ones worked much better, but they weren't too hard to transfer over.

Even on the spendy HID headlights, I think some of the OEM parts were moved over. Hard to beat OEM on some things.

Well, I tried to install the new headlights and as predicted I'm having a hard time getting it to fit and latch in place. Daylight is fading so later this week I'll switch out the new fasteners for the OEMs and see if that works. Worst case, I have to go to my mechanic and admit I can't install a simple headlight!