Hello, I have a thread going on in maintenance on this 7793957 but they recommended I also ask in this forum.

has anyone had any issues enabling a new bed lighting kit for a 2018 ford f150 xlt 5.0 4x4 w/towing kit?

I had the dealer program it but they couldn’t get it working; they checked wiring install (which I did) and it all looked good (I’m not a beginner on this) and reprogrammed bcm with no luck. I told them to stop as it was costing more than the kit.

I used my friends forscan and we noted it was enabled; disabled it, tried lights, nothing, reenabled it, tried lights. Nothing.
note that cargo lights work fine.
Replaced switch (it was free as kit is under warranty) and nothing.

I previously reviewed the wiring diagram so I know how the switch doesn’t actually carry power, it triggers a momentary ground to the bcm which then triggers power, I know the wires, connectors and pins the ground and power goes from bcm to switch/lights. I already checked c411 power pin and nothing. I’m going to try seeing if I can see the switch enabling ground on the c411 pin (don’t have pin #’s in front of me). But since it’s supposed to be a microsecond enabling I may not catch it.

note that C411 is the main connector in the back where the wires go into from the front before splitting to Lh and rh bed lights and switch so it’s a great testing spot.

mainly I would like to know, from this forum, if anyone did this install and enabling without any issues or with issues.

any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

I'm assuming you are using the FORScan easy method to make the required change. Sometimes it just doesn't work properly. Check to make sure 726-57-01 xxxx xxx1 xxxx which enables the bed lamp is what is set by looking at the actual As-built. 726-57-01 xxxx xxx0 xxxx is disabled.

 

Thanks, will do and report back

 

Ok so i used forscan to check 726-57-01 and it has 0300 0001 0089 in the fields which means its enabled, but the bed lights still do not work. Sigh

Next step, I think, is to start doing some electrical testing. I’ll verify that a ground signal actually goes to the bcm as I figured out which pin that travels on. There was no power on the pin carrying power.

 

Ok, I’m back from vacation and after checking that the switch does a proper ground on pin 8 (it does) I went back to square 1 and checked the ford website and bed lighting kit specs.

Bingo! While it says the kit fits a 2018 f-150 xlt it also says (in the fine print) that it will not work with an XLT with the 300a options package (base package). So I had to go look that up and, bingo, that’s the options package of my truck.

sheesh Louise.

So, something is not setup on my truck that allows power to go out of the bcm port. Really, it could be as simple as mine not having power seats. (That’s one of the features on the next option package up).

so I can figure out that feature/option and buy it (I’m sure power seats are pricey!) or I can look into powering the lights through another method.
Im going to do the latter.

I’ll see if I can get an always on power source back there and tie it into the switch somehow. Since the power doesn’t go through the switch this may require a different switch. Anyways, that’s for another day, now I know why I can’t get working and why it won’t work.

thank you all for the forscan help!