Well LCS, are you a hot rodder or a spec-tater with an unlimited budget?  I'll bet there are any number of folks here...you included...that could spend a couple of hours and solve that problem by figuring how to install replacement LED bulbs in that "sealed" tail light unit.

I know I would try before I laid down $500+ for one stinking tail light bulb.  I mean, what have you got to loose.  Worst case, you ruin one tail light assembly and have to spend $500 to replace it.

And if it works you can sell the instructions for $20 a hit and pay for a new pistol...oh sorry, I forgot you live in NorCal...no pistols allowed...but you could buy something you don't need.

BB

Last edited by Bullet Bob (5/07/2019 5:01 PM)

So, there actually is a replacement bulb?  They sold you one?  Let me at that sucker... sounds like a new MustangSteve product coming up.
Instead of a design for parts to install newer parts on older cars, maybe they need PARTS THAT WORK on the newer cars.
I bet the aftermarket light manufacturers are already onto this...

I guess those fancy LED lenses are the culprit. I bet in the future you will see alot of them with 1157 type bulb socket worked into there somehow.

If you want to send me your old one to look at, I would be happy to try and figure some “cowboy fix” to make it usable. There are lots of new lighting materials available now...

Bullet Bob wrote:

From what I read, Guys, the real issue isn't the LED lamps.  It's the fact to Ford now has a "Body System Controller"....'nuther computer...that has to be happy with the current draw of each light.  If'n it ain't, it just won't send pwr to it.  At least that what it sounds like. 
An anti-bootleg, guarantee that the fools buy our over priced replacement parts, make the dealers happy, computer system.  But, just hang on...some whiz will figure out how to hack it.

BB

That's my experience.  The bad light was intermittent for a number of weeks.  Now I'm getting a similar intermittent in one of the right tail lights.  One thread said to disconnect the battery so that the processor resets itself.  That is supposed to fix things.  Tomorrow's job.
 

Coupedaddy wrote:

Stop 🛑 lol I own one of these I will use the brakes and blinkers less. How many miles did it take to go out

50,000 miles
 

And just when "I was think'in bout" buying a new(er) FoMoCo product!!!!  grrrrrrrr

Love a Nissan product....they just don't tear-up!

Sorry fellas.
6sally6

It seems to me..........
On the Fords I hear about the nightmare of changing the rear spark plugs.....now the nightmare of tailight BULB (not!) replacement!!!
Its obvious why manufactures do this.($$$$$) it just seems FoMoCo is so blatent with it.
I mean..... give-a-guy a break here!!  New cars/truck cost a small fortune to begin with and THEN........500 dollar tailights!
Another reason I keep my old 91 S-10...when I would like to have a new Ford truck.   At least I can still "work-on-it" and parts are available.

Whats the old say'in?......'better to know the devil you have.......' sump'in like that.
Don't get me started about taxes on a new vehicle compared to an old one.
OK....I'm done!
6sally6

MS wrote:

What is the world coming to?   Why do we possibly need this stuff, other than to ensure faster obsolescence?  Get the 10 year old cars off the road so you have to buy a new one?

 
That is exactly why. Ford makes no money off the hobby cars like ours and little off servicing cars. They want us to buy a new vehicle from them every two or three years.

Remember a few years ago when Ford’s lawyers sent cease-and-desist letters to all the car magazines and parts suppliers that used “Mustang” in their name, informing them they could not use the Mustang name without a license from Ford? The rumor on the street at the time was that Ford was trying to find a way to stop people from extending the life of their products. Kill the old car magazines and run the specialty parts sellers out of business? They want their products to go to the scrapper as soon as possible. There are even some folks that claim to have evidence that Ford has been quietly lobbying governmental agencies to outlaw aftermarket parts, require smog tests and require scrapping a vehicle that won’t pass a smog test. Part of the reasoning for putting all the complex systems on new cars is to make them very expensive to repair. How many times recently have you seen a fender bender accent on a late model vehicle and the insurance company totals it because of the sky high repair costs? Gotta go and build another tinfoil hat. Those gubmint mind control transmitters wear the foil out quickly.