Third brakelight

[sonya_peltier7]

Called ford parts, ballast no longer available. Now what, thought I would just direct wire another red lens with bulb on the inside of the window and duct tape to hold in place. At this point looks don't matter, tired of getting pulled over and trying to explain, then getting a written warning, leading to a ticket. Removed lens and ballast. When pulling the wire out further from the lift gate, I found an inline 10 amp fuse. The fuse is good. Does anyone know what this contraption is for and can I just remove it and direct wire the make shift third brake light?

 

[Vic_Ferrari2002]

2 options... First go to a junk yard and get another ballast (thats what I did). Second go to the local auto parts store and get a strip of led lights to fit behind the red lens and wire then to the power wires feeding the ballast. With LED lights make sure you have the polarity correct or they wont work.

Either way it should be a cheap and easy fix.

Hope this helps.


Keith

 

[drdoom]

LED conversion search here there are a couple of how-to threads. Very affordable repair cost me less than $15 USD.

 

[2TimingTom]

Yep, LED is the way to go.

If you go to the junkyard, what are the chances that ballast has also failed? Pretty good. Somewhere toward the beginning of my registry is my LED conversion (which part number).

 

[sonya_peltier7]

LED conversion search here there are a couple of how-to threads. Very affordable repair cost me less than $15 USD.

how to threads link didn't show on your post

 

[masospaghetti]

The pull-a-part here provides a 30 day warranty on their parts. You could easily test the ballast in the parking lot on your vehicle before you even drive away to make sure it works. As mentioned already though, a lot of ballasts have failed at this point - I went through a few before I found a good one.

Dorman also makes a plug-and-play LED assembly to replace the neon one if you don't feel like rigging up your own.

 

[96eb96]

If you want the OEM part and you can't source it locally contact ped5stang on the board.He is an authorized vendor here. He sells used parts. You can also look on car-parts.com (you may find something local or contact them to ship, but you will probably have to try a few places because some just don't respond to small parts). Be sure to get both ballast and bulb.

Otherwise, like others said, go with the dorman LED replacement for your 20 yo creampuff . Part #70050 , about $100. Any auto store should have it, or rockauto. If you are near an advance you can find good coupons online.

Installing your own leds is a bit tricky, I think you have to bake the assembly at low temperature (like 150*) to unset the glue. If not it has to be cracked open.

 

[J_C]

Excuse my ignorance but what is the ballast? It's not just a 12V bulb/array, is neon or something?

I agree that a LED strip would be a good option. Through a red lens, a red LED strip would be more efficient than a white one but that also depends on how the manufacturer of the strip set it up.

 

[96eb96]

Excuse my ignorance but what is the ballast? It's not just a 12V bulb/array, is neon or something?

I agree that a LED strip would be a good option. Through a red lens, a red LED strip would be more efficient than a white one but that also depends on how the manufacturer of the strip set it up.

95-97 have a fancy neon setup with a ballast and a bulb. It is like a neon sign in a store (or a fluorescent for that matter). I think the 97-98 Mark 8s have something similar as a rear lamp (not the primary one though). The ballast was like $300 from the dealer when they sold it, the bulb close to $200.

 

[J_C]

Wow, what a ripoff, though the Dorman part at $100 seems really expensive too.

It wouldn't be very hard to DIY make a LED strip. Get a $5 copper clad PCB, use a knife or hacksaw to split the copper plane in half, cut it to size to fit in the available space, then solder on 2 series of 6 LEDs with the right value resistors for their current rating. Total cost should be under $15, or less if you have some of the parts already or are a good bargain hunter.

As for cracking it open, since the LEDs are expected to be a permanent/lifetime repair you might be able to just saw (or dremel or hot knife) it open then seal it with epoxy or caulking to make it waterproof.

 

[1Aauto]

We carry the LED plug-and-play third brake light for your Ford Explorer on our website. Here's a link to them

Ford Explorer LED Third Brake Light

 

[Flash]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-MADE-Te...-Bar-11-LED-Light-Trailer-Truck-/291392737266

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/red-led-lights

 

[J_C]

^ Is that an exact fit replacement or are you suggesting to take the guts out and mount them in the existing housing?

I'm not sure about the height of some generic strips but something like the following at ~ $5 might be a cheaper way to get the LEDs already set up for 12V, then just cut off sets of 3 LEDs to get it to the right length. It's probably brighter too due to using the 5050 sized LEDs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SMD-5050-2-...593?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac9714141

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuU3IQRYNBc

 

[koda2000]

Here's a link to my journey into the LED 3rd brake light conversion on my '97 Sport. Cost me less than $20 total and a few hours of my time. Screw that stupid ballast. Unobtainable, expensive, unreliable and not very bright.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=406392

It's been about a year now and it still works great.

 

[bobflood]

I rebuilt the existing light with a LED retrofit kit from Amazon; cost about $50 plus about 3 hours of my time. Chasing the used ballast is going to be very frustrating. I did this just over a year ago and still working fine. Good luck.