A few years ago I upgraded to "Silverstar" headlamps in my '95 F150 and was disappointed in the performance of the upgrade. I didn't investigate the problem until recently. It seems Ford used 18ga. wire to the bulbs. After a little checking I determined that there was only about 10 or 11 volts at each bulb with the resistance loss of the 18ga wiring. This week I set about to correct this fault. I started searching the web for the components I needed for my project. The first part I needed was a female connector to connect to the factory harness because I did not want to cut or splice the factory harness. It had to be totally plug and play. After hours of looking without any results I came up with the perfect solution. An old headlamp bulb.

I removed the bulb and cut the contacts off below the lip, soldered in butt connectors with 16ga. wires to match the factory colors, ground off the flange, and filled the cavity with JB Weld.


I then went shopping and bought the following items:
1-roll 10ga. wire red
1-roll ea. 12ga. wire red, black, & green
1-double relay connector w/ 2-30A relays
2-headlamp sockets w/ seals, terminals, & gaskets
1-waterproof 10ga. fuse holder w/ 10A fuse
heatshrink tube, butt connectors, ring terminals, & wire loom
I laid out where I wanted the various components located. Rough cut the wires. Then started attaching the components. I then removed everything and proceeded to finish the harness.


After I completed wrapping the harness and putting on the wire loom I was ready to install it. I loosened the radiator attaching bolts and zip tied it to an existing factory harness. Mounted the relays, connected the factory harness and bulbs, connected the hot wire to the power point, and mounted the fuse holder.


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Each headlamp socket is grounded to the nearest factory grounding point. Here is the schematic wiring diagram I used in this project.

After I finished the installation I double checked all connections and replaced any items removed during the install. During my test drive I noticed my "Silverstars" were working like the ones on the commercial that sold me on them to begin with. I am satisfied with the results of this modification and would recommend it to anyone that is not satisfied with their current configuration. If anyone needs info on links to various parts used in this modification feel free to PM or e-mail me with your requests. I can also build the harness for you on a cost+ basis. A side note: This modification can be applied to any year model Ford or other brand vehicle with only changing to a different type of connectors. It is also possible to run both high and low beams together on the high beam setting with the use of a single diode.

Looks great Robert! What was the total project cost?

Good tech - rep sent

Nice write up bill

Skandocious said:

Looks great Robert! What was the total project cost?

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I'll work it up and pm you, but it was cheap you know me.

Hmmm.... might explain why the silverstars in the Marquis aren't what I thought they'd be. Interesting.

radialarm said:

I'll work it up and pm you, but it was cheap you know me.

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Why does it gotta be a secret Rob?

Alright! here goes:
Double relay connector w/ relays $7.99
Headlamp sockets $4.99ea.
Wire $2.50 per roll
wire loom $4.40
fuse holder $4.00
assorted butt connectors, heat shrink tube, and terminals $6.00
old bulb $0.00
relay bracket(scrap) $0.00
I think that's about it. Except for shipping and that's a secret.

Were did you get all that stuff Rob?

Damn- I really am impressed! Serious.

polarbear said:

Hmmm.... might explain why the silverstars in the Marquis aren't what I thought they'd be. Interesting.

Click to expand...

What's happening is the stars take more current which lowers the amount recieved by each bulb. So your stars work out to being less bright than the factory bulbs, just a different color(blue as opposed to yellow).

Makes perfect sense. Headlamps are the weakest part of that car too.