I am here to share my experience with replacing my factory lights. Everyone knows LEDs are the rage and I wanted to upgrade my factory lights. I ran across F150leds.com and ordered just about everything they had for the truck. I didn't want to go a cheaper route on amazon because I wanted a vetted product for my truck.
The wait. Immediately I received most of my lights, but had to wait an extra 3 weeks to get my low beam lights in. -things happens this is understandable.
The install. I not wanting to mar my baby intensely watched their online video on how to remove the factory headlights (which in my opinion are designed completely stupid if I am being honest.) in the video which doesn't clearly showcase all aspects of removal, (because the devil is in the details- small details) they show all of the parts cleanly and clearly coming out off the vehicle with ease and simplicity. Upon watching serveral times, I felt it was a DIY project worth pursuing.
So I started -This was my mistake.
removal of the trim moulding. They direct you to remove the black plug fastener which I did. I was shocked at how hard it was to remove. I mared the crap out of out of both of them. I have never seen those stupid plugs so difficult to remove (and have removed serveral in my day) but these were a total Pain for some reason.
I pull the trim piece off. They advise not to go Gorillia on it, and I did my very best not too. Lightly pulled, lightly pulled and tugged -No workie.
Pull and pull nothing. Getting more aggressive, I pull and pull and then start to yank and POP! it finally comes loose. Just one problem. There are little white (lets call them unicorns because 3 out of 3 ford delalers and 2 parts stores can't find them in any of their manuals) Anyway these plastic unicorns fit on the little post on the trim moulding and help it snap in and hold the trim piece on. And like any true unicorn worth its salt, they vaporize and fly away to parts unficken known once you lays eyes on them.
The Black Damn it- The black damn it is an accessory from hell that ford put on this truck to make your life miserable. In the video the black damn it which sits below the headlight needs to be removed. In the video, it bounces off like the easter bunny. On my truck it does not. Appearenly mine was welded on or so I though Until I realize there were hidden clips that hold it on. Oh did I mention I sported for a truck with fender flairs? ( My poor miserable life) I did and that completely threw a hitch in my get-along too.
Light removal- I removed the light, but not until I snapped off the plastic retainer the held it in. After a game of tetris it did come out.
Now its show time. Install the bulbs! Whip the old ones out and toss the new ones in. Not so fast chief. The new one didnt go in. ( insert adjective here)
its in. Put the it back together.
In fairness, I dont do this everyday.
I manage to get everything put back it, and the lights work. Except now I have gone from a Unicorn to a Cyclops, and I am forced to do the other side. What would you do with $500 worth of light bulbs sitting on the bench?
In order to understand how the second side went please start from the begining of the post.
Plug? yep a bitch
Unicorns? yep a lost a few
black damn it? Yep still a pain but I understood it better.
Yes, I broke the seconds plastic retainer off the light bucket.
Let me throw a wrench in here for you. We need to add a few broken pieces of plastic off the light plugs which just broke off. - I swear to you I was being easy.
Install the lights? This was even more fun. My truck is torn apart and I cant get the led to mate with the ballast. I did, and broke the plastic nut in the process.
I put it all back together.
I test.
I take it all apart. One of the leds was not working.

( I was throwing **** mad at this point.)
My broke connector came unplugged. I put it back together.
Clean the garage, put tools away. Its 10:30 at night. I am 5.5 hours past what it took the dude in the video to do, I take the truck for a test drive.
Im not that inpressed. Especially since I now own a taco wagon instead of a nice new truck.

Morning commute. Start the truck, lights flicker a bit. Im still pissed but it seems to subside and I go down the road. I test low beam, high beam. To me, wasnt worth the effort, but might be a little better.
Miller time. work days done, hop in the rig. Stop by the store, and get back in the truck .I accident flick the brights on turn signal and notice they are not staying on.
Get out of the truck. I have no mother humping lights at all.
I now ( 4 beers in ) tell you my tale of misery,dispair, and loss (of unicorns) .

 

And, sadly, if you've installed LED bulbs in the low and high beams, you'll see poor performance and blind the crap out of everyone on the road.

 

Sounds like we have the same luck.......(most of it BAD!)
Sometimes you just gotta laugh.......(to keep from tearing chit up!)

 

So... Now, six beers into my evening, Not fit to drive man nor beast; I mosey out to the garage on a unicorn hunt (which I am sure I will find at least one six months from now while search for a bolt or pencil.) Anyway, I decided to try the lights again. They work . I don't get it. Tried a few more times, no issues. I wonder what it could have been?

 

Gremlins??
Scott

 

Sorry you had such a difficult time of it, but when I saw the whole contraption they created to replace the headlights I said "No thank you". Looked like there were too many places for things to go wrong, plus the LED "bulbs" as it were do not appear to cast light the same way as a vanilla halogen bulb does.

I did get the Morimoto replacement fog lights, which bolt right in without too much fumbling (https://www.theretrofitsource.com/mo...l#.Vum4PlsrJhE). They do need to be aimed a few degrees higher than the stock lights, as the beam is much, much tighter than the stock lights. Otherwise they point down about 5-10 feet in front of the truck.

 

Im leaving my headlights stock. (I have just the plain headlights)... Im not going to break my truck and then put junk lights in it... To the OP, Im sorry it didn't turn out well....Geez.

 

Welp. I guess I just don't learn my lessons very well. You see, I had led reverse lights I bought with the others. I often back my truck down the drive way in the pitch black. Can you blame me for wanted to see better? Was I supposed to just leave them on the work bench? I mean how hard could it be to swap them out? Simple, remove 2 bolts, light tug on the light housing and they come out slicker than grease.

Except mine didn't.

Now I know what you're thinkin. You're thinking there were unicorn clips weren't you? You'd be wrong.
There were damn it clips! Yes, of course they broke. I mean why wouldn't they? why would this go easy? In all fairness, breaking these lights was easier than breaking the others, but who's keeping score anyway? The light housing were a pia to get back in, but I did get. I was even lucky enough to set the parking brake, put in reverse and gaze at the beautiful back up light.

Until I went to the other side.

And saw that it wasn't working.

And had to take it all back apart. (much easier with broken damn clips if I do say so myself.)

While I was hitting all notes this evening, I opted to change out my front fog lights as well. I mean why not? I was certain that if I broke those all to hell, they would be much easier to find than rocking horse **** when compared to the unicorn clips the find ford folks cant find.

Now I don't wanna break my arm patting myself on the back or nothing, but I only sprayed a few subtle F- Bombs getting those in. I don't even think the neighbors heard.

The 2015 F150......Its meant to be assembled. -Not disassembled.

In closing, I stand before you (beer in hand) ready to take my just due flaming from all you fine internet folk. Do your worst now, don't hold back.

-I'm out.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^

Walk out into the garage in bare feet and you'll find all of your unicorns.

Sorry for your troubles bro but thanks for sharing and an honest and amusing manner.

 

FYI, you can get to the bulbs without removing the whole headlight assembly. A few screws and a body pin or two and the wheel liner bends back. I have fiddled with bulbs and LED's a bunch of times and it can be done in 5 minutes.

 

In my driveway its dark. but then Im used to it. and I used to work nights, so I know what its like to drive at night. and I drove at night for 20 years.

 

Mount a proper light bar or halogen reverse lights under your towbar and run power to the back to operate them on a switch. That's the proper way to get bright light for reverse. The reverse light pods in cars were never designed to provide powerful illumination, just notification. If your eyes require more brightness, then you gotta do a bit of work to get there .

As for the LED headlights, there's lots of threads on the worthlessness of lights online. Long version short, headlights are designed for a specific illumination source, and there is no such thing as a quick 100$ fix for poor illumination. Anytime stock illumination is not good enough, a full retrofit to a new illumination system is required. If you like to DIY, you can get away for 500$, if not expect 1-2K. That's really the only proper options, there are no cheap fixes.