Ever since I posted the article here on how to convert your low beam to 9005' Iv been on a long journey to find modern LED powered bulbs for my 97. I'v bout about 8 sets of various bulbs primarily from Ebay and test their wattage draw and what they look like in the housings. I'll cover the low beam first since thats the old ball hole and the most important since factory bulbs have long been discontinued. My wife has a 2021 Mazda CX#0 and I'v gotten used to the new style projector low beam that has a horizontal brake line across top of the light beam. At first I didnt like it but it grew on me so I looked for a Projector LED that count be modifyed into the housing. Originally I bought these 2X White H4 9003 Mini Bi-LED Projector Lens Headlight Bulbs Hi/Lo Beam Lamp LHD | eBay and found they draw about 27 watts on their low beam only and 34 with the high beam terminal on since this bulb has a 3 prong plug for low and high beams from the same bulb. Right now, I'm pretty happy with using only the low beam of the bulb. The garage door picture shows just the low on of this bulb. This mod requires you to get a 1 1/2" hole saw and open up the bulb hole in the housing (very easy to do). Then use 3 washers and nuts on the 3 studs to secure the bulb in the new hole. I all so had to put a couple washers under the bulb on the top 2 studs to shim this bulb to shine higher. Now latter on I bought a newer/smaller diameter 9003 version of this style projector bulb that looks brighter yet with a low beam draw of 37 watts. Just shining this low beam on the wall in my shop, it looks brighter than the large diameter bulbs I had all ready installed in the car that draw 10 watts less per. This newer bulb is this one. 2X H4 9003 Bi-LED Projector Lens Globe Bulbs 100W Hi/Lo Headlight Retrofit RHD | eBay It still has the horizontal brake line on its much smaller diameter projector. This 9003 bulb would require a 3 prong plug pig tail like this one Wire Pigtail Female Ceramic S 9003 HB2 H4 Two Harness Head Light Plug Replace | eBay Now I never use the high beam portion of these 9003's since our cars have conventional 9005 halogen high beams but I wired in a lead connector to activate the high beam with the car's high beam power if I want more high beam power but the high beam portion of these 2 speed projector bulb is not that effective in the Lincoln reflector housing. I'v found out that ANY LED head light bulb that does not have a cooling fan is ridiculously worthless in power. Non fan bulbs have like 1.5 -7 watts draw. Advertised watts draw is hardly accurate. Now I dont try to enclose these bulbs as the factory had the clear bulb covers. I found that no water has ever gotten in during a drive in the rain. As you can see in the garage shot, these low beam bulbs are crisp and bright. far superior to any of the long list of bulbs I'v tryed yet.
On to the optional High beam LED mod. Since these are 9005 standard bulbs, the bulb I used is this one 6 Side Illuminated LED Headlight Bulbs 9005 HB3 H10 High Beam White Bright 8000K | eBay These are pretty dang bright but its up to effective refector design to make these acceptable. To get these in the housing, the metal bulb gup needs to be removed from the housing. The only way to do this is take a 2 3/8ths hole saw and drill a removal hole like this and button it up with aluminum tape as picture once you have the halogen cup out threw this new hole.
Now these LEDs dont give as much of a contained long range light as the 65 watt halogens but it does give a nice big picture mid range illumination with some what milder long range than Halogens. I like them primarily because they mix well with the bright white LED low beam. I only have one good eye and that one is near sighted with a bi focal. So as you can imagine head lights are extremly important that I get the best out of these factory housing reflectors. I'v yet to jump high beam power into the low beam high portion bulb to see the increase in illumination. That would be an extra 16 watts of draw total but right now I dont see a need for it. If anything to change, I would change out the extra large lens 9003'3 for the higher power small projectors.
On to the optional High beam LED mod. Since these are 9005 standard bulbs, the bulb I used is this one 6 Side Illuminated LED Headlight Bulbs 9005 HB3 H10 High Beam White Bright 8000K | eBay These are pretty dang bright but its up to effective refector design to make these acceptable. To get these in the housing, the metal bulb gup needs to be removed from the housing. The only way to do this is take a 2 3/8ths hole saw and drill a removal hole like this and button it up with aluminum tape as picture once you have the halogen cup out threw this new hole.
