Leaking Tail light

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Fordman

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Does Ford know how to make light??? Well after playing around with my headlights. And finally replacing them. Noe my tail lights are leaking...Oh JOY !!! my right rear started to take in water. I changed the bulb, after drying it out. Last night we got a real nice rain here in Tampa, and POP there goes another bulb.... Well I'm going out of town but I'll try to fix this one when I get home. Lights are getting frustrating on this car. Anyone else have a problem with them too??? Or am I just lucky??? If so does anyone have a remedy???

Signed, Leaky LS Lights ( And I mean All !!! )
 
Yes, I had this problem awhile back. The black injection molded part on the back of the tail light will split because the light is to close to the plastic. Fix - buy a tail light or use some black peratex and seal up the hair-line crack. You have to look closely because the crack will be small.
 
01lssport said:
Yes, I had this problem awhile back. The black injection molded part on the back of the tail light will split because the light is to close to the plastic. Fix - buy a tail light or use some black peratex and seal up the hair-line crack. You have to look closely because the crack will be small.
Click to expand...

Great, Thank's for the info.. I will check it out....
 
haha wow i thought i was the only one... same thing, rear right tail light... i dried it out once and the next day the water was back... i just bought a replacement...
 
I have a right rear INNER tail light that is 30% full of water. At first I thought the black on the bottom had something to do w/park assist....but it's water. anybody else w/03+ had this issue with the inners?
 
Took mine out last night. About a glass of water came out. I dried it, and then re-sealed it with black silicone. Plus I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the light where the stop light is. That's what keeps filling with water. We wil see what happens.... I'll let you all know.
 
I just had my weatherstripping replaced in my trunk because it was taking in water...and leaking into my right tail light. I will let you all know if it's fixed or if I need to get another light :-(

-Matt
 
mdrobnak said:
I just had my weatherstripping replaced in my trunk because it was taking in water...and leaking into my right tail light. I will let you all know if it's fixed or if I need to get another light :-(

-Matt
Click to expand...

The tail light is sealed so replacing the weatherstripping on the trunk does nothing for the tail light. Ford messed up these tail lights. The bulb is too close the the plastic bezel and warps it. After a few thousand times it splits and lets water in to the light. Closely inspect the black bezel of the light especially arourd any warped areas. Slap some silicone over any splits in the plastic and you will be fine.

Drilling holes in the tail light doesn't fix the problem. The water that gets in to the light will corrode the reflective coating on the inside of the light causing it to look black on the inside.
 
Wow, definitely a Ford/Lincoln problem, just re-siliconed mine again last week. Be careful though. Now I need a new one, which I guess I'll just drill right away. After having to change the bulb and seal the hole so many times, two of the bolts in the light have stripped out of the plastic!!! Be very easy when changing that right tail and it's probably best not to tighten the bolts back all the way. Or even just hand tighten those bolts since you now know that you will need to fill that seal again - it's the bulb heat. My car is a 2000 and I've still never had to change any of the lights in the left tail??? I came to the same conclusion, that bulb is almost right on the plastic. If you look at it you can see where the heat has damaged it, compare it to the left tail.
 
Wonderful.

Well, with the heavy rains, I had about 3 inches of water in the spare tire / battery compartment...so the weatherstripping was screwed to begin with. Either that, or I just got screwed.

-Matt
 
mdrobnak said:
Wonderful.

Well, with the heavy rains, I had about 3 inches of water in the spare tire / battery compartment...so the weatherstripping was screwed to begin with. Either that, or I just got screwed.

-Matt
Click to expand...

No you didn't get screwed. You also need to check the bolt holes and harness plug where the tail light comes into the trunk, these holes sometimes leak water into the trunk. I used some small rubber washers to stop the water from coming in to the trunk. You'll get it fixed.
 
Well, everything seems OK for now. I guess I'll find out the next time it rains. They said "tested OK" after repair. We'll see.

Thanks.

-Matt
 
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