Greetings All! - I just finished installing the Ford Performance (Rigid 360) Mirror-Mounted Off Road Lights (Ford Part No. M-15200K-BML). Overall, I am very impressed with the quality and the illumination from the LED lights is bright AF!
A few observations and installation tips:
1. Ford provides shiny chrome hex head bolts for mounting lighting brackets which seems odd. I have an Iconic Silver "Black Diamond" Bronco and all of the trim is blacked out. The chrome bolts bugged me enough that I installed some black cap screw bolts instead. You would think that Ford could have provided the fancy black Torx-Plus bolts with BRONCO on the head to match the rest of the bolts on the vehicle. I did not try reusing the factory provided Torx-Plus bolts because they seemed too short to use with the bracket. You should be able to get some longer Torx-Plus bolts from Ford, but they probably cost $5.00 a piece.
2. The slot in the lighting bracket is much wider than the "M6" metric mounting bolt. Even with a wide flange bolt head, it seems to be a sloppy fit with the bolt head just catching the edges of the bracket. No washers were provided in my lighting kit either. I obtained some black metric washers to avoid scraping the black powder coat on the bracket. I also modified two regular washers by grinding the sides flat so that the washers fit within the bracket slot. Two stacked washers are about the same thickness as the bracket and worked well to center the blot within the slot.
3. The mounting hole on the Bronco Mirror is recessed and seems to be a collection point for water and eventually corrosion. I taped off the bracket and filled the slot with black silicone sealant to prevent water from collecting below the bracket. I also used some electrical, self-bonding, silicone repair tape underneath the bracket to protect the Bronco mirror surface. This also will help to keep the bracket from rotating since there is only one mounting bolt.
4. You need to go on line to find the Ford installation instruction sheet. Be sure to connect to the Violet wire with a Green tracer line. Do not connect to the Violet wire with a Grey tracer wire (like I did) or the lights will not work. The Violet wire with Green tracer is the switched power circuit controlled by the AUX-3 switch.
5. Routing the power wiring through the door jamb and behind the hood hinges is a bit of a challenge. I used as electrical steel "fish tape" and it worked well. A coat hanger wire would work also. I crimped on the wiring and heat-shrinked the connections prior to pulling the wiring through the door jamb just so I could have a longer pull wire.
6. The loop crimp connectors for the ground terminations provided with the kit are the wrong size. The diameter of the hole is much larger that the grounding bolts you need to connect to. I used the correct size from the local home improvement store.
Overall, I am very impressed with the quality and performance of the Rigid LED lights themselves. They perform extremely well and just look really cool on our Bronco. Just be forewarned that the mounting hardware provided with this lighting kit is subpar and you will need to improvise a bit to get professional results. For the $350.00 price of the kit, I expected an engineered mounting system and attention to detail to the hardware and electrical connectors.
Good Luck!
A few observations and installation tips:
1. Ford provides shiny chrome hex head bolts for mounting lighting brackets which seems odd. I have an Iconic Silver "Black Diamond" Bronco and all of the trim is blacked out. The chrome bolts bugged me enough that I installed some black cap screw bolts instead. You would think that Ford could have provided the fancy black Torx-Plus bolts with BRONCO on the head to match the rest of the bolts on the vehicle. I did not try reusing the factory provided Torx-Plus bolts because they seemed too short to use with the bracket. You should be able to get some longer Torx-Plus bolts from Ford, but they probably cost $5.00 a piece.
2. The slot in the lighting bracket is much wider than the "M6" metric mounting bolt. Even with a wide flange bolt head, it seems to be a sloppy fit with the bolt head just catching the edges of the bracket. No washers were provided in my lighting kit either. I obtained some black metric washers to avoid scraping the black powder coat on the bracket. I also modified two regular washers by grinding the sides flat so that the washers fit within the bracket slot. Two stacked washers are about the same thickness as the bracket and worked well to center the blot within the slot.
3. The mounting hole on the Bronco Mirror is recessed and seems to be a collection point for water and eventually corrosion. I taped off the bracket and filled the slot with black silicone sealant to prevent water from collecting below the bracket. I also used some electrical, self-bonding, silicone repair tape underneath the bracket to protect the Bronco mirror surface. This also will help to keep the bracket from rotating since there is only one mounting bolt.
4. You need to go on line to find the Ford installation instruction sheet. Be sure to connect to the Violet wire with a Green tracer line. Do not connect to the Violet wire with a Grey tracer wire (like I did) or the lights will not work. The Violet wire with Green tracer is the switched power circuit controlled by the AUX-3 switch.
5. Routing the power wiring through the door jamb and behind the hood hinges is a bit of a challenge. I used as electrical steel "fish tape" and it worked well. A coat hanger wire would work also. I crimped on the wiring and heat-shrinked the connections prior to pulling the wiring through the door jamb just so I could have a longer pull wire.
6. The loop crimp connectors for the ground terminations provided with the kit are the wrong size. The diameter of the hole is much larger that the grounding bolts you need to connect to. I used the correct size from the local home improvement store.
Overall, I am very impressed with the quality and performance of the Rigid LED lights themselves. They perform extremely well and just look really cool on our Bronco. Just be forewarned that the mounting hardware provided with this lighting kit is subpar and you will need to improvise a bit to get professional results. For the $350.00 price of the kit, I expected an engineered mounting system and attention to detail to the hardware and electrical connectors.
Good Luck!
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