It is getting late and the United States’ Co-ed Beach Volleyball Championship after-party starts at 9 pm. You hop into your 1994 Ferrari F355, which is of course painted in a beautiful Rosso Barchetta, and get on your way to enjoying some beach-side refreshments. Upon putting your Prancing Horse into reverse, you realize you cannot see anything. Thankfully, Morimoto has you covered with their XB LED taillights to ensure you do not back your prized Ferrari into anything important, like your matching luggage set.
There are truly not many cars that can better anthem your drive with the theater of the Ferrari F355. Unfortunately, the stock lighting components, particularly the taillights as we will see today, fail to live up to the precedent the rest of the car sets. Morimoto has resolved this issue with their XB LED Tails that fit not only the F355, but the 550, 575, 360, and the F50. Yes. That F50.
Inspired by the designs of modern Ferrari tails, like the 488 GTB, Morimoto’s XB LED Tails are meant to update your applicable Ferrari from both a look and a technical standpoint. The original taillights are melted, faded, cracked, and based on incandescent bulbs from the 1980s.
These lights provide a much-needed performance upgrade, while not losing the iconic styling. If you did not know any better, these could pass as OEM taillights.
When looking at their brightness, the stock lights are dismal. Check out this comparison between the stock lights:
…and Morimoto’s XB LED Tails:
There is a huge difference between the two and we cannot see why you would not want to upgrade. Plus, if you are not planning on keeping your F355, they are easily removable with just a few screws. That way you can easily swap back in the stock tails for resale. Although, why would you?
Furthermore, these taillights are designed to work without any modification to the wiring of your Ferrari. These lights utilize the stock mounting points as well, so no modification needs to be done on that end either.
Beyond the added styling and performance benefit, these taillights add a few new tricks over the stock headlight housings. Most notably is the quad reverse-light function, wherein the center of each taillight illuminates white as your reverse light.
The exterior perimeter of each light acts as a red high-intensity brake light and a low-intensity parking light. For the middle sections of the lights, they are used as an amber turn signal and hazard light.
These lights are also produced with durable polycarbonate lenses that have been UV tested. The injection-molded housing is lightweight and more durable than the stock headlights.
If you are not ready for a taillight upgrade or maybe you have already installed the XB LED Tails, Morimoto also offers a Sealed3 Round that can be used as a fog light application. We installed some Sealed3 low beams earlier this year to amp the fog light game.
If you are not a Ferrari enthusiast or you are waiting a few years to buy one, you can check out the other XB LED tails Morimoto offers here. If you are looking for some headlights, Morimoto has you covered in that department too.
If the design of these taillights piques your interest and you happen to own a 2005-2013 Chevrolet Corvette or a 2015-2021 Mustang, Morimoto has some Ferrari-style taillights for your build. They also offer quad taillights for the 2010-2012 and 2013-2014 Mustang as well.
To begin, lift your hood and unscrew two screws beneath the lip of the car. There is one on the left and one on the right.
Once that piece of trim is removed, there should be four more screws dotted across the top of the grill cover. This will allow you to slide out the third brake light housing component and the grill cover.
Reach around into the engine bay and undo the two mounting screws attached to the rear of each taillight. Be sure to have a hand on the taillights to ensure they do not fall off the car.
You will find that on some of the taillights that the screws may be closer or further apart. Either way, the XB LEDs have an extra pair of mounting points to match the OEM configuration.
Before putting in the new taillights, you will need to take the large rubber O-Ring gasket and place it around the rear of the XB LEDs.
You can then thread the wire through the taillight hole and tighten the taillights into place. Repeat for each housing.
Thankfully, Morimoto designed these headlights to be entirely plug-and-play. On one side, you have the red connector that plugs into the XB LED taillights and a black that plugs into the factory taillight wiring.
Something important to note, on the black connectors, there is a missing wire. One is missing from position two, and the other from position three. This will determine which connector they apply to on the factory wires.
There are also two load-equalizing resistors that go through two orange connectors. If they happen to come unplugged, it is easy to plug them back in. It does not matter which orange connector connects to which, the resistors do not have a specified polarity. The same applies to the black connectors going between the resistors and the orange connectors.
Before reinstallation, run through the taillight functions to make sure you connected the wires correctly. Once that is complete, go ahead and reinstall your taillights.
If you are more of a visual learner, be sure to check out the video installation below. While you are there, make sure to like and subscribe to our channel for the latest lighting upgrades for your vehicle.