LR Turn Lamp

[MikeyP83]

Today, my neighbor of 2 days backed into my 2006 Explorer. Hit the drivers side rear bumper and cracked the turn signal plastic. Fired up car and dashboard says LR TURN SIGNAL which typically means the bulb is out. Turn on left blinker and the front is strobing like crazy (working) but back is not. In the rear of the car on drivers side, marker light is working, but not the LR turn signal. I have a spare bulb so when I got back home from running an errand, I put the new one in. Still not working. Transferred the turn signal bulb from the right to the left (thinking my spare was wrong one) - still not working. Put the bulb back in the right side and works fine. Tried turning on the hazzards, 3 of the 4 fired correctly, LR not working.

Annother oddity... before changing the bulb each time I pulled the keys out of car, then changed the bulb. Put key into accessory position. No warning on dash board. Put left turn signal on to test, LR TURN SIGNAL shows up. So it's not until you use it, than you get the error on the message center.

I further read on the forum to try tilting steering wheel all the way up and see if that helps. It didnt. Another oddity, I was getting a "tire sensor" error for the past 3 months. Now when I turn the key to accssory with the left signal turned on the flashers work fine for about 3 seconds, then when the computer cycles to check the tire pressure, the blinker goes to fast flash and stays that way (when tire pressure message comes up). I tried this several times and was able to repeat severl times. Seems odd to think, but they seem related.

Any thoughts why LR would go out and a bulb replacing it wouldnt work? Wiring harness looks ok, the plastic on the cover is just cracked not destroyed. The actual wiring harness and wires look fine. Any thoughts would help, thx.

 

[zerodevil]

check the socket at the LR turn signal bulb. When I went to install LED's i discovered the pins where the ford wiring harness connects to the plug that goes into the socket for the bulb were loose and creating an open condition on the circuit. Also check for torn wires and the likes.

 

[MikeyP83]

Than you for your advice. Today I went to the local Firestone dealer to get the tire sensor fixed. The service writer asked me if I wanted to get the bulb "fixed" for an additional $15. I told him no as - I already tried a spare, and also moved the Right bulb to the left side and neither of them worked. I just figured I'd have the body shop look at it as maybe its part of the damage from the neighbor backing into me. Firestone did their job and upon checkout the guy said that the tech had already replaced the bulb and it works fine (no charge). Which of course drives me crazy as I tried 2 bulbs and neither worked [the marker light did work- glowed fine, just not turn signal, wondering if theres a "polarity" the bulbs].

 

[zerodevil]

its kind of complicated with these newer explorers, once an open circuit is detected and you get the warning it stops sending power on that circuit until the vehicle it turned off, and then back on again. This new unexplained feature made trouble shooting my led install a right pain in the rear. glad you got it working again!