Ditch Lights, Fog Lights Flickering. Rigid 360 Lights / PICS ADED

[Ninjak]

As it says, my ditch lights which are on switch 3,4 my fog lights on switch 6, and now my light bar switch 2, have stopped working. The light lights up inside for the number, but the ditch lights 3,4 just flicker. The Lightbar stopped working this morning, but I see that the fuse blew. The fuses for the other lights are ok.

I am not good with electrical wiring, I mounted the lights and Ford tech at the dealer did the wiring. Unfortunately, the guy who did has moved on, and the other techs there are clueless or seem they know about as much as I do, which is not a good thing. So I am reaching out here to see if anyone can help point me in a direction to look at or to give this information to someone who would know how to track it down.

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[cr117]

Got any pictures of the wiring? Could be bad connections or an unstable grounding point.

 

[Ninjak]

Got any pictures of the wiring? Could be bad connections or an unstable grounding point.

I do not have the pics, but from what I can see, the passenger ditch lights are running in a wire loom to the driver's side, from there it looks like black, red, and white wires are all going underneath the the fuse box.

I will try to get some pics.

 

[Brian_B]

The good news - lighting wiring is pretty simple, usually. It will just be 2 wires - hot and ground.

The bad news - you are going to need to tease those wires out of looms and zip ties and anything else to really check it out.

Just start with the wire at the light and pull it out free working down until you get to the fuse panel / upfitter switch connection.

Once you get the wires free - just look for anything funny. Corrosion, melting spots, discoloration in the wiring, cuts or rubs in the insulation, etc. Pay particular attention to any of those connectors.

I would also suspect a bad ground - but it isn't uncommon to see quick connects / butt splices / wire taps that corrode out too, and the occasional kinked wire that just starts to go.

If you don't see anything at all wrong - my general rule of thumb is take all the connections apart and re-do them. 7 times out of 10 that will fix whatever the problem was if it wasn't otherwise obvious.

 

[HPNQ420]

The good news - lighting wiring is pretty simple, usually. It will just be 2 wires - hot and ground.

The bad news - you are going to need to tease those wires out of looms and zip ties and anything else to really check it out.

Just start with the wire at the light and pull it out free working down until you get to the fuse panel / upfitter switch connection.

Once you get the wires free - just look for anything funny. Corrosion, melting spots, discoloration in the wiring, cuts or rubs in the insulation, etc. Pay particular attention to any of those connectors.

I would also suspect a bad ground - but it isn't uncommon to see quick connects / butt splices / wire taps that corrode out too, and the occasional kinked wire that just starts to go.

If you don't see anything at all wrong - my general rule of thumb is take all the connections apart and re-do them. 7 times out of 10 that will fix whatever the problem was if it wasn't otherwise obvious.

The only things I would add:
As stated above, a ground is suspect. Find where the tech grounded the wires. The bolt might be loose.
I would ring out the wires (check for continuity) after disconnecting from the light with the upfitter switches off. This might not be possible depending on how the tech connected the wires to the upfitter switches.
I would check for shorts to ground from the wires to the lights. The clue is the blown fuse. The bad news is this could be intermittent. If at any point unprotected wires (not in a plastic loom or not spiral wrapped) were zip tied to metal this is a good place to look for shorts to ground.
You could have a bad ground on all the lights and a short on the wires to the light bar.

 

[HPNQ420]

The only things I would add:
As stated above, a ground is suspect. Find where the tech grounded the wires. The bolt might be loose.
I would ring out the wires (check for continuity) after disconnecting from the light with the upfitter switches off. This might not be possible depending on how the tech connected the wires to the upfitter switches.
I would check for shorts to ground from the wires to the lights. The clue is the blown fuse. The bad news is this could be intermittent. If at any point unprotected wires (not in a plastic loom or not spiral wrapped) were zip tied to metal this is a good place to look for shorts to ground.
You could have a bad ground on all the lights and a short on the wires to the light bar.

One more thing: If the tech didn't use heavy enough wire to the lightbar insulation might have melted and caused nasty shorts between wires.

 

[Ninjak]

Was able to take some pics. From what I can tell, everything is wired up, the connectors look solid, the one thing I would think is off is that there are a lot of things grounded in the same spot? Not sure if that is bad or not.

 

[Chrome_Pony]

One more thing: If the tech didn't use heavy enough wire to the lightbar insulation might have melted and caused nasty shorts between wires.

With flickering and blown fuses, I'm suspecting this or some variation of this is the case.

You should have a reputable local stereo or accessory place that installs aftermarket lights or other 12V gear that can look into this. Dealer is just going to fire up the parts cannon and hit you with their labor rates.

 

[Ninjak]

Added pics to the first post

 

[Brian_B]

Added pics to the first post

Under that ground bolt (to the right in the first pic), check and make sure the paint is removed and it's clean and getting good metal to metal contact.

All those butt splices are suspect as well. At the least tug on all of them and make sure the wires and tight and don't pull out.

 

[Chritaka]

Under that ground bolt (to the right in the first pic), check and make sure the paint is removed and it's clean and getting good metal to metal contact.

All those butt splices are suspect as well. At the least tug on all of them and make sure the wires and tight and don't pull out.

All those splices made me cringe...

 

[Ninjak]

All those splices made me cringe...

SO I did not do this wiring, the Ford shop did the lights, after I mounted them. As I said in the beginning, I suck at electrical, my skill goes about as far as putting in a stereo, and it needs to be a clean setup for that!

How should this be done? So there are not so many splices? And by the splices do you mean were the passenger connects to the driver's side? I have a pair of ditch lights on both sides, so four in total. The outside 45 angle goes to 3, the straight-ahead goes to 4.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I do not have the pics, but from what I can see, the passenger ditch lights are running in a wire loom to the driver's side, from there it looks like black, red, and white wires are all going underneath the the fuse box.

I will try to get some pics.

Underneath as in just passing by or going INTO the fuse box?

NOTHING should be going into the fuse box, unless they are grabbing a back-light control wire from the fuse panel. Your lights should be connected directly to the upfitter switches.

Just saw the photos you added. NOT exactly a clean installation and it looks like they didn't use something specific to the Bronco for wiring. Looks like they took the generic harness and started hacking things apart. NOT a clean job but not the worst i've seen. They just tried to cheap out by re-using some non-specific harnesses (that's why we always include harnesses with the products we sell).

I'm guessing you got the Rigid 360 lights, from the Ford parts department? This is why I HATE when Ford sells these kits as they DO NOT include a BRONCO HARNESS. It's a generic toggle switch harness that you have to "hack" apart.

Much cleaner ways to do it.

So basically it's very difficult to troubleshoot your install BUT if your lights are flickering, i'd check your GROUND point. Chances are wires have corroded and the ground is not making a good contact.

A good way to tell is turn the lights on and wiggle your ground point wires. Does it effect them? If so, bad ground.

Take your truck to a professional and have them rip out everything Ford put in and have them do a nice clean wiring job.

I know there are some Ford techs out there who do a good job so if you are reading this don't take this the wrong way, but people need to STOP taking their trucks to Ford to have accessories installed. MOST Ford techs don't know what they are doing. Take your truck to a shop that specializes in 12V electronics. And always double-check and ask what kind of wiring or plan they have in place.

Here at our shop, we use braided nylon harnesses along with weatherproof/heat shrinkable connectors. Even on harnesses that might come with a kit we might use our own OR at the very least we ALWAYS tape up the red wires so that it's protected. It's a pet peeve of mine to see red insulation under an engine bay. It takes 5 seconds to wrap a wire in some tape then leave it exposed.

 

[Ninjak]

Underneath as in just passing by or going INTO the fuse box?

NOTHING should be going into the fuse box, unless they are grabbing a back-light control wire from the fuse panel. Your lights should be connected directly to the upfitter switches.

After pulling and tracing that wire, its white, and it looks like it loops back into the cabin strapped to a thicker black wire. So yes, it does appear all of the wiring is setup on the switches. I still have not located the fog light wire, but the three wires they say that can connect to the front and back are not in use.

 

[Chrome_Pony]

Butt splices don't worry me that much, they're the heatshrink kind with heatshrink under them, which is an interesting choice. The heatshrink butt splices actually harden and hold the spliced wires pretty well, if not particularly attractively, I've used them frequently.

What does concern me is the red/black conjoined wire that's been separated. Cheaper conjoined wires will pull the jacket off and expose the stranded wire beneath when pulled apart. Can be on the ground, the hot or both, which might explain some symptoms.

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