Morimoto Replacement LED Review

[Bombsquad68]

Just thought I'd give my review of these in case anyone else is considering them.

They're well built, good looking lights. The install isn't very hard, no special tools required. I had factory LED so these were plug and play, and I put about 45k miles on the originals so I'm pretty familiar with them. I also spent a lot of time adjusting these and did multiple runs in the dark the last few days, taking them out and in to adjust the high beams.

I ordered from Raptor Retrofit on the presale and they showed up in nice condition, Dawson is good to deal with

Pros -

Great Looks, sequential turn signal is cool
Well built, close to OEM quality
Low beam hotspot brighter than OEM
Cheaper than OEM if purchasing new


Cons-

Worse low beam pattern than stock, no spill, harsh cutoff

High beam overall worse light output than stock, with uneven and poor pattern

High beam limited up/down aiming, also it's inaccessible once the light is installed.

Do not come with all bolt supports like OEM lights, you end up not using two bolts for the panel below the light when you install.

Overall-

If I was being generous I'd say it's a lateral move vs OEM LED lights. But to be honest it's probably a slight downgrade. The high beam just sucks, and there's not enough spill in the low beam to let you read signs once the beam drops below. Almost no spill close to the truck which makes offroad manuevering more difficult. The factory OEM actually have a really good, smooth pattern with good spill, but they could use more lumens .

The videos they show the light in their garage and measure max lux at the hotspot, but that doesn't really translate to a better light . I also ordered a pair of the Morimoto 17+ Superduty lights for my old man so I hope they're better.

Sorry for the lack of pics, will post some pics tonight. They do look cool, but overall I would only recommend if you have the factory halogens , or smashed up your factory LEDs and don't want to pay Ford pricing to replace.

I've got 4 Baja Designs LP9s coming to fix my lighting, if they ever ship from BD.

Edit:

Here's some shots showing the beam pattern low and high beam. Left is Morimoto, Right is OEM.

 

[Onemoosehorn]

Thanks for the honest review. I’m sure that will help some people out.

 

[Tomkirkland4]

Thanks for the write up very helpful!


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[Bombsquad68]

Updated with some exterior shots.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Yup I agree with you. I have them on our demo truck as well. I actually put them on a 2015 that had Anzo Housings with our own CrystaLux G11 Series LED bulbs. Going to the XB Headlights I got more light over the Anzo Projectors (325 lux on the Anzos, about 1000 lux on the XB Headlights) so hey, that seemed good, more lux (however the new 2018 Anzos and our G11 Series bulbs do 900 lux, with only 1 projector instead of dual like the XB have).

But yeah as you said the patterns weird. The low beams seem odd to me, not as wide, a very hard hot spot in the center so driving it feels weird. Throwing the highs on does not flood the scene like you hope, it just adds 2 more spots down the center (the Anzo highs blew the XB out of the water with our bulbs).

So yeah im with ya... for the price, better then OEM LED, and the light is slightly more BUT it's also VERY hot (as in a hot spot). Also the white outline on our own set failed within a few weeks, they stopped working and I have to take the truck apart to figure out what's going on now.

I mean to go from OEM LED to anything there are very limited options (this being the only 1) so if someones got $1500 laying around, sure

 

[melcam23]

I just installed my set. I haven’t been on the road with them yet.






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[melcam23]

Bolt supports? Are you talking about these? If so you need to transfer them over to the XB’s.



By chance are you getting any radio static when the low or high beams are on?

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[Bombsquad68]

Yes those supports, I originally was going to leave them on the OEM LEDs , I assumed they would be needed to install my OEMs on a truck with halogens if I sold them.

I just checked, and yes I'm getting pure static with the low beams on.

We went hunting with my truck again yesterday and the lack of spill was irritating on the bush trails on the way home, made me wish I could keep the mirror lights on at normal speeds to help fill the ditches like the OEMs did.

I'm going back to stock and cancelling the order for my dad's truck.

 

[The Retrofit Source]

Bombsquad - thanks for your review on the headlights. As the North American distributor for this product, we wanted to chime in quickly on what seems to be your main concern over the lights - which was the lack of additional intensity from the high beams.

Looking at your output shots, it seems the high beam projectors are just aimed too low. Check out the install guide on P8 (last page) - you'll see there is a separate aiming adjuster for the high beam height. Turning that counter-clockwise will raise the beam and provide you with better distance / spread.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/media/custom/upload/File-1540233179.pdf

If you have radio interference too, you can either contact us or Raptor Retrofit directly - will get you a set of inline EMI adapters that will fix that problem. The unfortunate downside is that you would have to unmount the light to install it, but it will definitely fix the issue.

Thanks again for your honest review. Truck looks sick! hopefully these couple things will be helpful & allow you to enjoy the lights as designed. Cheers man.

 

[Raptor Retrofit]

Looks like you need to raise the high beams, you can adjust those independently of the lows. You should be able to access the adjustment screws by dropping the front part of the wheel well liner, you may have to use an angle adapter on the socket wrench but you should be able to get on it enough to adjust while the lights are installed and aimed at a wall. Here is an example of how they should look at around 20 feet from a wall. There are also horizontal adjustments for both low and high if you feel you are not getting enough width.

Your drivers side high beam looks like its below the low beam. Definitely need to raise those up.

On the bottom supports just transfer yours over from the OEM lights, if you sell your OEM LED to someone with halogen they just do the same.