:sigh: Another LED bites the dust... and Ford's answer blows | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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:sigh: Another LED bites the dust... and Ford's answer blows

P

PIUtility

Allow me to elaborate. I bought my PI Utility fully optioned for work, and I use the emergency lighting regularly. The Ready for the Road package is nice mainly since I bought the vehicle as a demo and the hefty discount overcame the ridiculous price for it.

That said, I'm about to go in for my 2nd replacement Wigwag/ Park-Turn-Warning light. And what my dealership tells me boils my piss. Not only is my warranty about up, the factory AND aftermarket extended warranties will not cover the cost after the car is beyond 36k miles.

What makes me want to Hulk-smash the parts desk is the fact these are $700 A PIECE, something made by Whelen that used to be $300 A SET. And because of the back-handed deal Ford made for these, I cannot in any way shape or form get these outside of a Ford parts center. And Whelen who even has their own part numbers and sticker on these units, cant warranty out or do an in-house repair on them.


Blow it out your backside Ford for this one. There is no excuse for this. Even the $70 red and blue LED lights are more than $200 from the parts counter. :thumbdwn:




:pushing away from the computer now:
 



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Washington DC Police replaced over 300 of the Whelen Park/Turn/Warn bulbs.

Big issues since thats an $800 option when you order them.

Any chance one of the other big lighting vendors makes a replacement bulb?

Sound Off, FedSig, Code3,.........
 






Nope, nothing plug and play or meant to be used like this. Whelen had the market on this one here, and its totally bogus for both Whelen to turn its back on issues, and Ford to sit there with hands out.

FordService, if you're reading this, please be aware I'll be contacting CS over this issue, and that I will never again recommend this package or lighting solution to anyone in the future unless something is changed. Paying this kind of money is RIDICULOUS
 






It is a factory ordered item and is covered under the 3/36. If you have an extended warranty are they saying its not covered because its a light bulb? I would argue against that. They are $300 a piece through Tasca.
 






I should ask, what function of them is going bad?
 






That can't be right. $700 EACH??

holy.....
 






I should ask, what function of them is going bad?

Blinker... Went fast blinking then took a look in a parking lot and its very dim and solid on with barely noticeable dimming/blinking. This is the warranty item they replaced a month ago when the damn thing started blinking bright white instead of amber
 






If you have the OEM jumpers for the typical bulbs put those in and eliminate the BCM as the problem.
 












I have. It seems to be another flasher unit for the PTW gone bad.

Too bad the utility ones are different from the sedan ones. I have a set sitting here.
 












...FordService, if you're reading this, please be aware I'll be contacting CS over this issue, and that I will never again recommend this package or lighting solution to anyone in the future unless something is changed. Paying this kind of money is RIDICULOUS

I understand your frustration, PIUtility. Reach out to me via PM and I'll document your feedback about the lights in our system. I'll need your full name, best daytime phone number, VIN, dealership, and any specifics you'd like me to include. I'll do the rest. :thumbsup:

Crystal
 






Allow me to elaborate. I bought my PI Utility fully optioned for work, and I use the emergency lighting regularly. The Ready for the Road package is nice mainly since I bought the vehicle as a demo and the hefty discount overcame the ridiculous price for it.

That said, I'm about to go in for my 2nd replacement Wigwag/ Park-Turn-Warning light. And what my dealership tells me boils my piss. Not only is my warranty about up, the factory AND aftermarket extended warranties will not cover the cost after the car is beyond 36k miles.

What makes me want to Hulk-smash the parts desk is the fact these are $700 A PIECE, something made by Whelen that used to be $300 A SET. And because of the back-handed deal Ford made for these, I cannot in any way shape or form get these outside of a Ford parts center. And Whelen who even has their own part numbers and sticker on these units, cant warranty out or do an in-house repair on them.


Blow it out your backside Ford for this one. There is no excuse for this. Even the $70 red and blue LED lights are more than $200 from the parts counter. :thumbdwn:




:pushing away from the computer now:
Hi, PIUtility.. Did you ever resolve this issue ? I have the same problem, fast blinking, no turn signal, Ford Parts had no clue what I was asking for. Are there any alternatives to a 800 dollar replacement part? Thanks
DK
 






You can almost certainly find replacements for a 2013-15 Interceptor on the cheaper side from wrecked vehicles. If you don't need the flashers, you could downgrade to regular non-RftR headlight assemblies which are super common and don't look any different at a glance. A little bit of wire splicing might be required.
 






Guys I am sorry for what you are going through. Have you contacted Whelen directly ? Not that it is any consolation however my daughter has a stock bmw and a driver on a rear turn went out 795, from BMW 75. rebuilt on Ebay. Maybe on the used market you can find one. ?
 






Following. I have the same issue. Can I just install a new light as I do not need the stobes? Help!
 






Following. I have the same issue. Can I just install a new light as I do not need the stobes? Help!
Welcome to the Forum.:wave:

Peter
 






Yes, you may just install new lights. There is a decommissioning kit for vehicles equipped with the headlight lighting options which a Ford dealer may be able to order for you. It's a small pigtail that plugs-in to the strobe/turn wiring harness and has a regular bulb socket to replace the Whelen strobe/turn bulb & controller assembly. I removed the Whelens in my PIU, saving them in case I want to use the strobe functionality in the future, and used those to install cheap aftermarket LED turn/DRL bulbs.

The part numbers are 2U5A-13411-GB for the socket, and 33471-0301-11125 is the part number for the Molex MX150 connector on the harness end of the pigtail, there's no actual Ford part number.
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Another option, if you like the LED signals (they are rather nice) is to get the assembly from an Interceptor Sedan. They run around $100 or so each on eBay. It's unclear why the sedan parts are so much cheaper. They are slightly different physically, and would need one of the twist-lock tabs to be filed-down slightly, but electronically, they're identical.

I personally tried installing the sedan version from a car I was going to use for parts. They worked perfectly when I tested the signals, but I just couldn't quite get them into the headlight housings. When I compared them to my originals that I took out, I noticed one of the tabs is ever so slightly off, just a few degrees. It's like Ford did that just so they could charge a bit more for the PIU version. Rather than filing the tabs to confirm this absolutely works, I decided to start driving the somewhat wrecked sedan, because it's a really quick Ecoboost (fastest police car from 2013, as tested by the Michigan State Police), so I reinstalled them back in the car. It just seems almost certain that they will work with that modification.
 






Thanks everyone for the support. Y'all are great.
 



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