Now that these Morimoto Third Brake Lights are available to ship they are all the rage in the F150 community. We got ours and decided to do an installation write up and video to help others see how this installs and how it works.
Below we will outline the steps we took to install the light. If you dont want to read it you can view the process on our youtube channel buy following the link below.
On our 2013 F150 we already had a cheap LED 3rd brake light but the cargo light function of it left much to be desired.
We will start off with how this light is packaged. Ive been doing this long enough to know that shipping carriers will find a way to break most anything. This light came packed very well. The lens was protected with a plastic film, then in a plastic bag and then packed in the box with molded foam on both ends to keep it secure and protect it from shipping abuse. I would be very surprised if any of these ever get damaged in shipping.
Inside the box you will find an instruction card with a QR code to link to the manufacturer instructions. But there is more ways that one to do the process so we will cover how we did it.
First you need to remove the old third brake light. Its just 2 screws. swe had previously painted the screw heads black to match the old LED light we installed. If your screws are still silver then hit them with a little black spray paint so they blend in with the new Morimoto light.
After the light is removed you need to unplug the harness. The plug is further inside the truck above the headliner. The harness that it plugs in to is clipped in to the roof as you can see by the two white tips in this picture.
To get access to the plug end we had to inside and remove the two plastic push pins at the back of the headliner.
The next step is much eaiser if you have the sliding rear window. With the window open and you in the bed of the truck, reach up above the headliner and follow the wire until you feel the plug and disconnect it from the harness. This is what you will be looking for in the picture below. If you dont have a sliding rear window you can do this by dropping the headliner lower and reaching up there but you will be doing it by feel since you wont see what you are doing.
Once you have the old harness removed you can install the new Morimoto harness through the third brake light opening, down through the hole and then reach above the headliner and plug in the new harness to the body harness that is still attached to the roof frame.
After that you are in the home stretch. Plug the harness in to the Morimoto light, install the 2 screws to the hold the light to the cab and secure the headliner back in place. Now you are all set to wait until dark and try it out.
If you never figured out how to turn on your cargo light before you arent alone. It is not marked and seems to be a hidden secret. You use your dash light dimmer switch to do it. To turn on the Cargo light and dome lights push in on the far right side of the dimmer light switch. It will push in a little then push a little further and you will feel a soft click. Hold for a few seconds and the lights come on. To turn it off do the same thing but on the left side of the dimmer switch.
Now that its dark we could get some pictures of the light out. The cargo light is much brighter than stock and brighter than our previous LED 3rd brake light.
The brake light is equally as bright.
This light is functional upgrade but the main reason most of us want this light is that is just looks cool.
This process is similar on the newer F150 and Super Duty trucks. If I remember right the 2015 trucks the harness connector is much easier to access and wont need to reach above the headliner.
When purchasing a new Morimoto third brake light be sure and order the correct one. There are different part numbers depending on if your truck has a camera mounted in the third brake light. Also if replacing this light on Raptor it will not have the red LED parking light function that the OE light has.
You can see the available applications for the Morimoto X3B third brake light in the link below. We will be adding more applications as they are released.