Expensive F150 tail-lights ... How crazy is this?

[Bladecutter]

The grassy hill you're walking on sure looks wet.
Becareful you don't slip all the way down it.

 

[MNgopher]

If you watch the end of the video, he shows the original taillamps laying on the tailgate with water in the one.

Shows them with water in it but never shows where or how the water got in....

 

[Nick1994]

I'm sure Ford is just raking everyone over the coals for this. There's no chance they cost anywhere near that to make. I mean sure it's reasonable they have some profitability on them, but it's probably beyond that.

Car manufacturers will do anything to save a dollar. Like what Ford did with the Pinto in the 70's.

 

[wtd]

Shows them with water in it but never shows where or how the water got in....

He talked about it in the video that the water comes through the seals of the tail light. He said it's fairly common. In the comments he mentioned that the high pressure touchless car washes are a big contributing factor as well.

 

[andrew_j]

Auto recycler seems like the better route out there for this . Ford makes Land Rover ownership look economical in this case.

 

[Shel_B]

What is CAN? What is BLIS?

 

[fsdork]

yes, it is. My Brother is an engineer at Borg Warner, I was asking him why my Mopar truck locks out the cruise control and the 4wd system if there is an ABS failure... and he went around and around in his head trying to rationalize why Mopar did it that way, but he couldn't... same applies here to Ford... it doesn't make sense but if that is the solution, then that is what it was.. I remember going around and around with one of our vendors who was installing communication equipment on some of our vehicles, and we had an issue on one particular vehicle where the communication stuff got connected and it caused the ABS to go haywire and the Check Engine light to come on and the Speedometer to act like a tachometer... ... the vendor insisted it wasn't the fault of his equipment but he couldn't explain how the problem went away when we disconnected his communication equipment..

If ABS fails, the vehicle presumably loses the ability to collect information about individual wheel speeds. If cruise is allowed to continue operating without that information, loss of traction under one or more drive tire(s) could result in yaw and loss of control.

Some will say "That's why you don't use cruise control in the winter.". For those of us who have driven vehicles without ABS/stability control/traction control, that's fair - but there's now a whole generation of drivers who have only known vehicles with those features, and have had every reason to expect those systems will intervene when needed.

As for 4WD I'm less clear on the reason, but perhaps something along the lines of the system which distributes power to each wheel/axle depending upon available traction, dissimilar wheel speeds due to cornering, etc.

 

[John105]

It's a domestic vehicle, so not surprising the repair was inexpensive

 

[b_b]

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here the lamp and blind spot sensor for $1000 dollars. i dont know what he's on about.

 

[Nukeman7]

What is CAN? What is BLIS?

Since you asked:

CAN bus

Ford BLIS

 

[Shel_B]

Since you asked:

CAN bus

Ford BLIS

Thanks. I'll read the info later today.

 

[GON]

Auto recycler seems like the better route out there for this . Ford makes Land Rover ownership look economical in this case.

I have the LED blis lights on my 2019 F350. Very tough to find replacement taillights that are not cracked, thus resulting in moisture impacting the light. Solution is multiple actions, from a much stronger taillight assembly to design of the modules that significantly reduce impact when water is introduced. One of my F350 LED lights was half filled with water. It happens....

 

[zzyzzx]

Avoid collision avoidance systems or whatever else is making things like windshields / headlights / taillights super expensive now.

 

[GON]

Avoid collision avoidance systems or whatever else is making things like windshields / headlights / taillights super expensive now.

Gotta have the bling....... sad.......

Ford offers halogen on their F150 and F250/350 taillights, but one can't easily retrofit from LED to halogen. Huge endeavor of many thousands of dollars in parts and labor.....

 

[edyvw]

The nanny state will eventually mandate all of it. First was TPMS, then backup cameras. Next will be BSM (blind spot monitoring) or something else like radar to avoid front end collisions. Or maybe even rain-sensing wipers.

Don't worry, it's all safe and effective like other things we've seen mandated lately.

I agree all these options should be optional if the buyer wants them. We don't need legislation requiring them.

There is hardly more useful device than TPMS. I would put it behind seatbelts but ahead of air bags.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Every vehicle with OBD2 had a CAN bus - which is every vehicle since 1996. CAN is an ancient open system network, and its fairly robust, hence its used on Auto's, on commercial vehicles, on locomotives, and in factories. If you ever heard of DeviceNet in a factory, that's a form of CAN.

The bus should not fail with one module going down. You can wire Can in a star, in a drop, or in a daisy chain. Not sure - maybe even a loop? Either way, since this is a thing in 2023 but wasn't in 1996, its FORD not CAN. Yes, you will loose whatever that one module controls - but everything else should work. For example, if you loose the ABS controller, all your ABS / traction control stuff goes away, but your engine, lights and windows should still work.

This is a terrible implementation of any network topology.

 

[Nukeman7]

I have the LED blis lights on my 2019 F350. Very tough to find replacement taillights that are not cracked, thus resulting in moisture impacting the light. Solution is multiple actions, from a much stronger taillight assembly to design of the modules that significantly reduce impact when water is introduced. One of my F350 LED lights was half filled with water. It happens....

I know you are a big fan of using silicone paste liberally for fasteners, etc. Did you slather up the tailight and BLIS electrical connectors on the F-350 King Ranch with silicone paste as shown on the Makuloco video?

Given the high cost of replacement parts, it may be prudent to seal the taillight lens gasket interface surfaces with clear RTV as a primary deterrent to future water intrusion.

 

[GON]

I know you are a big fan of using silicone paste liberally for fasteners, etc. Did you slather up the tailight and BLIS electrical connectors on the F-350 King Ranch with silicone paste as shown on the Makuloco video?

Given the high cost of replacement parts, it may be prudent to seal the taillight lens gasket interface surfaces with clear RTV as a primary deterrent to future water intrusion.

Yes, absolutely. As posted earlier, I use silicone paste on just about everything....

 

[Jetronic]

It brings down the entire CAN bus. A lot of modules have the potential to do this. Similar issue on Ram pickups.

yes but a minor hit on the corner could bring down the can bus and prevent the vehicle to be moved off the road. I'm not a big fan of Hyundai, but at least they used a seperate external CAN for their modules behind the bumper and they get extra points for that

 

[Jetronic]

I know you are a big fan of using silicone paste liberally for fasteners, etc. Did you slather up the tailight and BLIS electrical connectors on the F-350 King Ranch with silicone paste as shown on the Makuloco video?

Given the high cost of replacement parts, it may be prudent to seal the taillight lens gasket interface surfaces with clear RTV as a primary deterrent to future water intrusion.

I'd use silicone grease aswell. But not RTV unless the electrical connectors work loose