Form Lighting Headlights/Tail Lights: A few observations/questions

[murrman]

I purchased a set of Form Lighting headlights and tail lights from @4x4TruckLEDs.com during their Black Friday sale. I received them last week and have a few observations/questions after installing and using them for the past week. I’m hoping others who have them can chime in. If what I’m seeing is “normal,” that’s fine. I just want to confirm.

With the headlights, I’ve noticed two things that I don’t think happened with my factory headlights. It’s possible I’m just paying much closer attention now, but I don’t think that’s the case.

First, I do notice a bit of wobble/shaking when I go over the occasional bump. It’s not every bump, but it does happen. I notice it most in the lower-left corner of the headlight beam. I’m pretty sure the headlight bolts are tight enough. I checked the top two bolts and confirmed they’re torqued to spec. I haven’t been able to double-check the bottom bolt yet since that involves removing the grille and lower trim, but I know I tightened it down during the initial installation. The headlights don’t seem to physically move at all when I touch them or try to wiggle them. Is it possible one of the projectors inside the housing itself is moving, or am I just being overly critical?

Second, I’ve noticed the headlights dim/flicker when the car starts back up after auto stop-start at a stoplight. Again, I’m fairly certain this didn’t happen with my OEM headlights. Is this to be expected?

For the tail lights, the biggest thing I noticed is that the clips on the tail light housing don’t match up with the corresponding points on the vehicle. The three bolt holes line up just fine, but there’s a clip and a post on the tail light that look like they should match up with corresponding holes on the vehicle. In reality, they don’t. It doesn’t seem to affect my ability to install the assemblies, but it just seems like those parts should line up for a more secure fit. Since the lights are made specifically for the Bronco, why wouldn’t they line up? I’ve attached a couple of photos showing what I’m referring to.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can chime in with their thoughts/experiences. Overall, I really like the lights. They’re super bright, and the amber halo looks awesome. I just want to make sure what I’m experiencing is to be expected. I do have a tendency to overanalyze things, so that’s why I’m looking for some outside input.

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[TLO]

Your headlight experience is normal for these...
Mine have a shake/vibration as well. The housing is mounted solidly...it's the internals that are lacking in rigidity.
And start/stop, 100% they flicker...they needed to add some capacitance to the circuitry but...probably eats into their profit.

I have a 2026 Big Bend coming and I'm almost certain I'm leaving the headlights alone.

With that said, the Forms have great output, sharp cutoff and a beautiful blue/purple diffraction at the cutoff

 

[murrman]

Your headlight experience is normal for these...
Mine have a shake/vibration as well. The housing is mounted solidly...it's the internals that are lacking in rigidity.
And start/stop, 100% they flicker...they needed to add some capacitance to the circuitry but...probably eats into their profit.

I have a 2026 Big Bend coming and I'm almost certain I'm leaving the headlights alone.

With that said, the Forms have great output, sharp cutoff and a beautiful blue/purple diffraction at the cutoff

Thanks for getting back to me. That at least makes me feel better that it isn't an issue with my installation. I'm assuming there's nothing we can do to reduce the internal shake since it's a sealed housing. Thanks again!

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I never noticed anything on my own truck and I ran the Form Headlights. As for the Tail Lights... I've only installed a few sets but everything lined up properly for me.

As for flickering... that's the nature of ford turning the truck on and off. Headlights will do that even without start/stop if the headlights are on and then you start your truck. That's just electronics and a motor putting a load on the battery to start. I'm not sure if the factory headlights flickered or not I can't recall. I never used start/stop though to be honest. I always turn it off (hate it, as do most).

 

[murrman]

I never noticed anything on my own truck and I ran the Form Headlights. As for the Tail Lights... I've only installed a few sets but everything lined up properly for me.

I'm definitely noticing a little shaking. Would you advise trying to exchange them (I purchased them from you)? As for the tail lights, I'll reach out to Form Lighting to see if those clips are supposed to line up with the spots on the vehicle.

 

[ChrisB351]

I had the morimoto xrgb lights and they would bounce a little. Ive switched to their xb series now (got rid of rgb after 3 failures) and theyre good. I had oracle tails that failed and they replaced like a year ago and finally installed them yesterday. The instructions mentioned that clip but I apparently left it off originally but didnt have any issues.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I'm definitely noticing a little shaking. Would you advise trying to exchange them (I purchased them from you)? As for the tail lights, I'll reach out to Form Lighting to see if those clips are supposed to line up with the spots on the vehicle.

That depends on how much shacking. I'd recommend reach out to Form with a video of what is happening.

You may not have your tails lined up properly. They DO need to line up properly in there as there are multiple points something has to line up. So chances are you may not have lined them up properly or angled them in properly when inserting them. They kind of have to get inserted and wiggled around to CLICK into place almost.

 

[murrman]

You may not have your tails lined up properly. They DO need to line up properly in there as there are multiple points something has to line up. So chances are you may not have lined them up properly or angled them in properly when inserting them. They kind of have to get inserted and wiggled around to CLICK into place almost.

I'm 99% sure they're line up correctly, because I was able to finish the installation without any issues. The bolt holes lined up perfectly, and everything looks fine after the installation. It's just that the clips in the housing didn't actually clip into anything. They didn't hit anything on the vehicle frame/trim, but it's for sure just the bolts holding the tail lights in place.

If I have time this weekend, I can try and take them back off to double check (and try to record a video of putting them back on).

As for the headlights, I'll go check my dash cam footage to see if I can find a good example of the vibration/shake.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I'm 99% sure they're line up correctly, because I was able to finish the installation without any issues. The bolt holes lined up perfectly, and everything looks fine after the installation. It's just that the clips in the housing didn't actually clip into anything. They didn't hit anything on the vehicle frame/trim, but it's for sure just the bolts holding the tail lights in place.

If I have time this weekend, I can try and take them back off to double check (and try to record a video of putting them back on).

As for the headlights, I'll go check my dash cam footage to see if I can find a good example of the vibration/shake.

They might not go into anything, I don't remember. If you recall there are SIDE BOLTS that also go into the tail lights. They may just be for alignment purposes to help with alignment. Unlike say an F150 that has 2 "rods" that CLIP into place, on the Bronco they may not clip into anything as the tails get bolted in from the side and I think (if memory serves me right) from a bolt on the bottom going into it. So 3 i think? But it's been a hot minute since I installed a set.

 

[murrman]

They might not go into anything, I don't remember. If you recall there are SIDE BOLTS that also go into the tail lights. They may just be for alignment purposes to help with alignment. Unlike say an F150 that has 2 "rods" that CLIP into place, on the Bronco they may not clip into anything as the tails get bolted in from the side and I think (if memory serves me right) from a bolt on the bottom going into it. So 3 i think? But it's been a hot minute since I installed a set.

Yes, there are three bolts total. A top and bottom bolt facing the rear of the vehicle, and one on the lower side behind the trim/fender flare. All three lined up fine during my installation. It just threw me off when I saw the clips were there but didn't actually seem to clip into anything.

 

[TLO]

Thanks for getting back to me. That at least makes me feel better that it isn't an issue with my installation. I'm assuming there's nothing we can do to reduce the internal shake since it's a sealed housing. Thanks again!

After posting, I took one of my warrantied Form lights apart...they're sealed but you can use the oven to take them apart old-school.
Mine had an intermittent failure of the halo light and Form replaced it.
I might actually make a vid of this process...
But the internals look pretty decent. The circuit boards seem like quality units. One was epoxied for durability but the others were not.
It looked like a capacitor was in there to smooth out the start/stop but obviously not sufficient.
What was clearly evident was the massive amount of SMD components on the boards...not really surprising but probably all hand soldered, which can lead to poor QC and points of failure.
The SMD components themselves are most likely cheapest available...
The plastic frame that holds the 4 LED projectors seems well designed and rigid enough, but they are mounted on 3 plastic swivel posts (1 is for aim adjustment) and I'd say this is where the shaking is originating from. I don't see an easy way to mend this...but maybe adding ballast weight to it would reduce the frequency and not make it so apparent?
I'd love to have a look inside an OEM light for comparison...
I do know that most of the electronics for them are mounted on the exterior of the housing inside a heat sinked, cast aluminium box

 

[zyglyrox]

Yep to both of your points. Hasn’t ruined the experience yet but it’s normal.

 

[murrman]

Yep to both of your points. Hasn’t ruined the experience yet but it’s normal.

Thanks! As long as it's to be expected, I think I can get used to the occasional shake. I just wanted to make sure I didn't somehow end up with a defective unit.

 

[Hammerli22]

Thanks! As long as it's to be expected, I think I can get used to the occasional shake. I just wanted to make sure I didn't somehow end up with a defective unit.

When I got my Form lights one of them felt loose inside when I picked it up. When I rotated it 360 degrees you could hear something inside was loose and rolling around. I sent a video of it and they replaced it. This was last year.

 

[TLO]

When I got my Form lights one of them felt loose inside when I picked it up. When I rotated it 360 degrees you could hear something inside was loose and rolling around. I sent a video of it and they replaced it. This was last year.

After taking one apart, the capacitor bank and one of the circuit boards is just double sided taped I'm place... Likely one of these

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