Left Rear Brake/turn light inop

[F15E_WSO]

All,
My son had a friendly conversation with the local police yesterday about his left rear light assembly; got off with a warning. As this is the policeman near the high school suspect that is his only warning.

I bought replacement bulbs last night and grabed the trusty phillips screwdriver and thought I had a 5 minute job ahead of me and Jr.....not so fast! Good on Ford, this job is a no-brainer normally.

The bulb is good, ALL other lights front and back work as advertised. Assembly is not cracked, checked some fuzes based on fuze box maps found here--all good, wiring harness looks intact, connectors dry--no corrosion, in other words all good.

I will put an voltage meter on it tonight but suspect there is no voltage as a good bulb is a pretty good indicator.

The left side is roughly where the factory trailer wiring comes from so will investigate that in the light of day and check its voltage as well.

Does anyone have expereince with a similar problem? Electrical issues can be very problematic.

This is a 911 as I can't let the Kiddo drive without it and he already burned up his warning.

THanks in advance

 

[F15E_WSO]

Eureka!!!

Checked out the rear harness, wiring, connections etc.....fuses all good, swapped them etc etc....back to the internet and voila!

The issue is the connection(s) at the steering column.

Here is the link

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/01_Sport_Trac_left_rear_turn_signal_and_brake_light_quit_working_why

Put the rear light assembly back together and had the wife step on the brake.....her words " oh yeah, that must have been me, when I drove it I lowered the steering column"

I'll tackle that in the morning now that I know what the problem is.

 

[waskly]

burnt socket?

put the parking lights on and flashers, use a test light at the connector 1 wire will be 12 volts, 1 wire will flash the other should be ground, if that all good then the socket is no good.

 

[F15E_WSO]

It's the connector inside the steering column! When you lower the column with the tilt mech. It puts TOO much strain on wiring harness and pulls the connector. First thing to be pulled loose is the left rear brake/turn light. IMHO this is a systemic problem* in the design--harness is just too short.

Without the help from the internet I could have torn the car apart looking for this, can't imagine what a dealer would have charged. Or the dealer knows what it is, fixes it in 10 minutes and charges the customer 2 hrs of labor. (Dispatcher and Service Writer 25 yrs ago so I know how this can go, I had a horrible Service manager when I quit, this was his MO--total slime ball).

*In the defense of Ford, when you start cutting fractions of inches off of wires/harnesses it adds up when you make millions of cars. Also saves weight. In aviation the harnesses have basically zero margin; getting them hooked up or changed is a nightmare.