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Hello All, original owner of an 04 Lariat. First post, but with the age of my truck I'm sure I'll be back frequently.
About 3 years ago I applied the silicone fix to the 3rd Brake light and around the same time my factory dual din stereo unit had some weird issues. It would still display time and all other functions (radio station etc.) however NO sound. After a lot of forum searching and fuse pulling I ended up buying a new unit with bluetooth and installing it. It worked great for about 3 weeks and then it stopped powering on. At the time I used the truck 3-4 days a week so I just decided not to worry about it as I read many horror stories of owners spending hundreds of dollars at dealership with no fix to the stereo.
Fast forward to today when I realized(due to an awful stench after rain) that some guys that performed my last vehicle inspection had broken my 3rd tail light and badly tried to cover it up. Long story short, they cracked it badly and stripped the screws leaving the tail light hanging on by a thread. I've got a brand new one on order and already purchased new screws and silicone. I did some reading on this forum today and noticed that there are many that report water in the wiring channel with the same leak so I popped open the channel and found what is pictured below
Obviously this is bad. I'll be vacuuming and drying when I get home tonight and will plug with some towels until my new 3rd tail light arrives. However, I'm also now curious if my rear window seal is contributing to the water in the channel? Pictures below:
Lastly, I'm trying to locate a good wiring diagram and determine if the badly corroded wires are related to the dual din stereo unit. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to repair these wires and how to determine if others are damaged that I can't see on immediate visual inspection? I don't have any other electrical issues that I know if in the truck other than no power to the stereo unit. Also, there doesn't seem to be anything other than surface rust in the channel from what I could tell, nothing in the floor when I pulled the carpet pad up either.
This is now my daily driver, only 110k miles and I plan on driving it daily for another 6-7 years before ultimately retiring it to the ranch.
I was able to determine that the corroded and disconnected diodes are related to aftermarket AMP Research Power Steps. I noticed that the corroded wires belonged to what appeared to be a 2nd bundle so I pulled the manual and the colors matched. This explains why the steps only work with 2 of the 4 doors. I'm still curious if the water has caused a problem with the radio. Anybody know what wire to look at? Maybe the speaker wire is corroded? I've read that if even one speaker wire is bad that the radio will not work, is that true?
10-22-2018, 02:48 PM
3rd Brake Light Leak and Wiring Corrosion
