geauxford

I have a 2004 f150 4x4 super crew. I've owned it since 2010. For the 1st 1-2 years of ownership I replaced maybe one fog lamp bulb.

In the last few months I've probably went through 5. One went out so I replaced it, soon after the other one blew so I replaced it. Not long after that they both blew at the same time. I thought it was odd but i replaced both and not long after they blew again. I did some searching on the Internet and figured maybe I touched the bulb and that caused them to both blow at the same time. I took care not to touch them and they were good for a couple weeks, but they both quit again. Not just the bulb blowing but more like blowing up, the bulb is no more.

Any help or hints? Is it something I'm doing or an electrical malfunction?

ScottinSSMd

My 05 did the exact same thing. Tried aftermarket housings and still did it. Only had the truck a year then dumped it due to this and a few other mods the previous owner did that started costing me money.

DkBlueFX4

I bought my 05 2 years ago and noticed then that there was glass in my driver side fog light. Kind of wondered what had happened but didn't give it much thought. Last week my passenger fog light bulb exploded so now there is glass in that housing to. I'm going to pull both fogs and headlights and silicone the seals and get new bulbs for the fogs but I would also like to know why they explode like they do.

little nail

geauxford, The sockets you are plugging in the bulbs are cooked. You have high resistant connections. If you look inside the sockets the connections will be black instead of silver. You will have to replace the sockets and pigtails OEM or salvage some decent ones from a junkyard. Use butt connectors and a wire crimper to connect them to the existing wire. Pull the negative lead on your battery before you start snipping any wires.

geauxford

Little nail ,


I checked the connector per your suggestion. It looked more silver than black to me but I will post a pic for your evaluation.

little nail

geauxford, The connector doesn't look burnt. The other possibility would be moisture. Is there any moisture behind the lens. Do you have the fog lights on all the time or just when it is foggy out? Had a Ford Ranger for 10 years and never had a lamp burn out. One thing I did notice on the Ranger was when you pushed the button for fog lights the circuit stayed closes, every time you turned on the running lights or headlights the fog lights came on.
My wife's Mariner has the same fog lights, it is a later model. When you push the fog light button a relay latches it in, so when you turn off the lights the relay de-energizes so the fog lights won't come on when you turn the head lights on. You have to push the fog light button to have them come on.
The reason I suggested replacing the sockets was over a period of time if you have the lights on all the time, heat causes the copper in the sockets to anneal. That makes the copper soft so it doesn't make a good connection. How do the prongs in the lamp look, are they a dull silver, or are they black?
High resistance connects and moisture are the only two things that I know of the will cause your problem. Only other possibility would be a bad batch of imported bulbs, and that would be a stretch. Good luck

leopold

Might try a little dielectric grease on the connectors/pins.

little nail

Dielectric grease certainly can't hurt.

geauxford

Looks like I have a little bit of moisture accumulated inside the lens. I guess that will be my next fix. I usually leave the switch I the on position but they don't always stay on even when working properly.

zman7097

fellas if you pull the housing off you will notice a little round screen vent directly above the bulb. crappy design in my opinion i siliconed mine no problem since except the lenses fog up a lil but at least the bulbs arent blowing good luck