The smoked lens decrease the light output significantly. On a dark road you will run out of light to see with, and even high beams are less effective. Not being able to see well at night is a serious safety hazard.
Smoked/tinted lens are intended for show cars that get towed to meets and not driven on the street. If you area has vehicle inspections, they may not pass them, since most inspections check the headlight output and alignment. The LRS smoked kit even says "NOT DOT legal, for off road use only."
Headlight replacement cautions:
It took about 7 days to get the lenses, 20 minutes per side to install all 3 lenses and forever to try to align them.
I drove around for several days with the driver’s side headlight scanning the upper branches of trees for squirrels, owls and UFO’s. The headlight lens had extra slack between the retaining clip and the screw head which allowed the lens to shift around. Fixed that with some small washers between the screw heads and the bottom of the mounting hole. I would recommend that you find 2 extra adjustment screws per side - they are the ones with the hex ends on the end of the screw where it sticks through the mounting plate. That may help the alignment problems, as the stock setup only allows adjustment with 2 screws, and is hard to adjust in and down at the same time.
If you bought Genuine Ford headlights, the adjustment will be easy. If you bought reproduction headlights, they will be very difficult to align properly. I bought reproduction units the first time, and my headlights could not be aligned: they would shine up in the trees and across the road. I even had all 3 screws set up as adjustment screws.
The set of headlights I now have say "Ford" on them and they seem to line up properly.
The adjustment screws are upper inside and lower outside screws. If the headlights were re-assembled properly, they will have a 5/32" hex on the screw. You can use a 1/4" ratchet with a 5/32" socket. The upper screws can be reached with the hood up, while the lower screws may require you to lay on the ground in front of the car and reach them from the bottom.
To align the headlights, find a level spot with a wall 25-30 feet away. Put a fender cover over the driver light and align up the passenger light so that the light pattern is slightly below of the actual centerline of the headlight. This is to illuminate the right hand side of the road.
Uncover the driver light and cover the passenger light. The driver light should be aimed so that the light pattern on the wall is inward about 6" and slightly below the centerline of the headlight. This keeps you from blinding the oncoming cars.
Covering and uncovering the headlights helps to show which headlight is shining in what direction. Reproduction headlights may shine in several directions at the same time, making it very difficult to align them if both lights are on at the same time.
I like the smoked ones. I have smoked on my car and like them alot. I have a black car though so maybe the clear would look better on yours. When I upgraded to smoked headlights, and my tinted windshield, I had to change my bulbs to the brightest ones, and it is still hard to see at night, only because of the windshield though. Headlights alone did not have much effect as for visibility but my stock headlights were fogged up and yellow like yours though, so I think that dimmed the lights as well. I think the smoked lights would look awsome.
Diamond clears ftw.
