One strip of the LED Tail Light is out

[2016FPIUMOTX]

SO the other day my buddy noticed that one of the 3 led light strips for my brake lights on my FPIU was not illuminating when activated. When I had bought this FPIU it did have so standing water in the tail light so I took off the tail light and drained it out. I think some water may have gotten in the female end of the wiring harness because when I took off the tail light and looked at the holes where the pins go in there was a slight green discoloring around the male and female wiring harnesses. I have attached a picture of what this looks like below. If you know how to fix this without having to replace the whole tail light assembly that would be great. If you need pictures of the harnesses I can also provide those.

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum.
Unfortunately, I don't see any item mentioning the LED lights you referred to. Tail Lamps for 2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility | Genuine Ford Auto Parts
Did you clean the connectors? Green is usually a sign of corrosion.

Peter

 

[2016FPIUMOTX]

Welcome to the Forum.
Unfortunately, I don't see any item mentioning the LED lights you referred to. Tail Lamps for 2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility | Genuine Ford Auto Parts
Did you clean the connectors?

Peter

I have not. Is there a video you know of that shows how to do that?

 

[peterk9]

I don't know the extent of the issue with what you have, but have a look here; how to clean green corrosion off electrical connectors - Google Search
You can also try different searches.

Peter

 

[Mbrooks420]

You almost certainly need a new, complete tail light.

 

[Eric Z]

SO the other day my buddy noticed that one of the 3 led light strips for my brake lights on my FPIU was not illuminating when activated. When I had bought this FPIU it did have so standing water in the tail light so I took off the tail light and drained it out. I think some water may have gotten in the female end of the wiring harness because when I took off the tail light and looked at the holes where the pins go in there was a slight green discoloring around the male and female wiring harnesses. I have attached a picture of what this looks like below. If you know how to fix this without having to replace the whole tail light assembly that would be great. If you need pictures of the harnesses I can also provide those. View attachment 426705

I had similar problem and found that when extra lights had been removed, there were holes left in the light housing. I dried the light out and flushed with contact cleaner, but issues persisted. Ended with getting a new light

 

[2016FPIUMOTX]

I had similar problem and found that when extra lights had been removed, there were holes left in the light housing. I dried the light out and flushed with contact cleaner, but issues persisted. Ended with getting a new light

I would have thought that except that they left the ion flashers in the tail light assembly. I might try some contact cleaner and then more thoroughly clean the contact points with the cleaner on there with a pipe cleaner. This still might only be a temporary fix but, thats all I need to save up even more money or go find one from another FPIU at a junk yard.

 

[2016FPIUMOTX]

You almost certainly need a new, complete tail light.

That has been lingering in the back of my head however I am still hopeful that if I clean the contacts good enough that it will fix the issue

 

[BKennedy]

I don't think it's the contacts as those LED strips are most certainly on the same circuit. I would say the internal components of the tail lamp assembly are corroded, which caused the failure. Maybe you know someone who could repair the assembly, but I think you are going to have to replace it.

 

[J_C]

It might be DIY repairable IF you have a good soldering iron. Maybe. That row is probably all the LEDs in series, so likely that one LED in the series failed.

You'd have to non-destructively open it (which you might as well try anyway, since if it is destroyed you are no worse off than not trying and replacing it anyway), desolder the bad LED and solder a new one on. A multimeter with diode function should show which LED it is. Maybe there's some series current balancing resistor for each row of LEDs and it is that instead. Same thing but use meter to measure resistance or continuity and desolder/replace.

Option B: Get a used tail light from a junkyard.