vrdublu Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Just installed the Retrofitsource HID kit 5000k (9006) with the Canbus adapters. Honestly, these kits are way overhyped and overpriced. For the price you could go with another brand three times over if something goes wrong. I purchased the kit thinking it would be simple plug and play, and for the kind of money for an aftermarket HID kit you would expect it to be. The first problem I came across is, the polarity on the plugs had to be reversed. Secondly, one of the bulbs and/or the balasts would not turn on every time and one of the bulbs has a blue tint to it, it would come on for 3 sec. then turn off. It took 3 or 4 tries before it would stay on. The last problem I'm dealing with is the Canbus adapter. I'm not sure wheather the adapters are faulty or something else is going on, but my DRL are not working and/or working intermittenly. Just wondering if anyone else has had a problem with this kit and DRL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWizard Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 The Edge is not a CAN bus vehicle so the CAN bus adapters are not required and may actually cause problems. CAN bus is a technology used to monitor vehicle functions such as lighting and display a warning light or message when a bulb is burned out. It is found mostly on European imports. HID kits will not work properly with DRLs running on the headlights. The HID ballast can't handle the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal and reduced voltage used on the headlight circuit for DRL function. If you get anything at all it will usually flicker and the life of the ballast will be significantly reduced. That's why Ford switches the DRLs to the turn signal bulbs on Edge's equipped with factory HIDs. If you have a sympathetic service manager at your dealership, they can reprogram the DRLs to run the turn signal bulbs instead of the headlights. Some dealers are not modification friendly and won't change things from their factory configuration. If you get one of those - try another dealer. Another option may be one of the relay kits that connect your ballasts to the battery and use the headlight circuit only to trip the relay rather than directly powering the HID ballast. Check with Retrofitsource to see if their relay kit will work in that configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrdublu Posted August 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 Thanks very much for the reply, although theretrofit source assured me that this is the proper setup prior to ordering. Now having to deal with it over the past week, I must agree with you that this is the case, even though they should have known that this may happen? I'm not bashing them for it, just saying....... Any idea if the bumper lights can be programmed to run as DRL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWizard Posted August 13, 2014 Report Share Posted August 13, 2014 The only options for DRL in the Ford programming are the headlights and the turn signals (and "off" for US vehicles). The factory light bars in the bumper are nowhere near bright enough to meet the requirements of Canadian law and are considered just accent lights. The Edge 2 lights from daytimebrightlites.com are certainly bright enough but since they are aftermarket, Ford made no provision for programming them as the default DRLs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrdublu Posted August 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2014 Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiptop Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 I just install the same kit in my 2013 limited today. I'm in canada so my headlights are my drls. I installed them with the HD harness. Everything looks good except they won't run on drl settings cause I think the wattage is to low (25 watts instead of 35). They run but flicker when in auto or when the headlight switch is off but once I turn the headlights on everything is great. I'm going to get the dealer to turn the headlight drl to the turn signal. I hope this will make it right. I also hope that the bumper lights will still come on cause I also have a set of daytime brights in the mail. Right now I have switch back led turn signal lights so I hope that switching them to drl will light them up white and not Amber. Right now when I unlock it the courtesy light function ( the turn signal) comes on white and I like that look. Im also wondering that with the turn signal as drl, will they turn off when the headlights are on and can I run my headlight switch in auto and have everything work? This is my first post on this forum. I'll keep you posted on how it works when I get it switched, if I can find a dealer to change it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWizard Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 The wattage is not the problem, it's the low voltage and the way that voltage is created. Ford (and most other manufacturers) use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to run the headlights at reduced voltage for DRL. PWM is basically a square-wave signal with the voltage varying between 12V and 0V very rapidly so that the overall average voltage is around 8 volts. A halogen bulb can handle that quite well - the pulsing happens so fast that the bulb just sees the average voltage and produces a dimmer light. But an HID ballast can't handle either the pulsing or the reduced voltage so the lights either don't work at all or they flicker. In either case, the life of the ballast is significantly reduced. When you turn on the headlights with the switch you are no longer in DRL mode and the system feeds full voltage to the headlights so there is no flicker. Unfortunately, the DRLs will be amber. Reprogramming the DRLs from headlights to turn signals makes use of the bright turn signal "filament" (the amber one) not the dim parking light "filament" (the white one). So your switchbacks will be amber all the time except when you have the headlights on (DRLs are off so the white parking/running lights take over). There used to be some specialty switchbacks that have internal circuitry to switch to white when powered constantly but I haven't seen them for some time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiptop Posted August 20, 2014 Report Share Posted August 20, 2014 Thanks wizard, so does that mean after I get the drls switched ( from headlights to turn signals) I can use auto control again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWizard Posted August 21, 2014 Report Share Posted August 21, 2014 Yes, when the DRLs are switched to the turn signals, there will be no more voltage reduction to the headlights and they will work both manually and in the auto position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiptop Posted August 24, 2014 Report Share Posted August 24, 2014 So I decided against turning off the headlight drls function and changing the turn signals to drls. I did some research and decided to try a warning canceller (capacitor) and it worked. Since I'm using a relay harness only one of the factory headlight plugs is used so I plugged the canceller from the harness to the factory headlight plug. The auto switch works now, no more flickering on drl mode. I didn't realize this but when my headlights are on my turn signal lights are on too (low mode). This is nice cause my switch backs look great with my new HIDs and the colour matches well (the switch backs are white). Can't wait to install my daytime bright lights! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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