Why would a left rear turn signal and brake light quit working on a Sport Trac?

Answer 1

If the left brake light and turn signal have both stopped working, then the bulb has blown or there is a problem with the wiring or a corroded socket.

My brother-in-law's 2001 has had this problem for several months and I finally took a look at it this weekend. His left blinker and tail light didn't work and when he tilted the steering colum down the right blinker and tail light didn't work. I removed the plastic from the colum where the blinker lever and shift lever(bottom then top). I found broken wires at the connector that connects to the multifunction switch(blinker). This was caused by poor installation by Ford. There is not enough slack in the wires and the will break over time if you use the tilt function regularly. One wire broke with enough left to splice it. The other broke at the connector and when it tried to remove the connector from the multifuncrion switch the whole connector fell apart and all the wires came out. What a disaster. We are going to try to get Ford to repair it because it is clearly caused by poor design or assembly but if they won't we will probably hace to replace the wiring harness. I will guarantee that there are many 2001 Sport Trac's with this same problem.

Well, I took a look at the steering column, and that's exactly what was wrong with it, I had no broken wires, but what I found was the clip on the wiring harness receptacle had broken off and the connector had pulled out a bit causing it to loose contact and causing the left blinker to not work. I pushed in the connector and everything started working fine, what a relief. I applied some electrical putty on the connectors and hopefully that will keep it working. Again thanks for the tip. LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS TO ALL.......

The 2002 Sport Trac has the same issue - Poor design for giving relief of tension on the wires going to the connector in the stering column. The wires came out of the sockets of the connector because no proper relief. After pushing the pins back into their sockets, I placed a tie-wrap around all of the wires. I hope this fixes the design problem and help others with the same problem -- took about 45 minites to do. Need a Phillips screwdriver to remove the cover, pliers to remove the tilt knob.

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My 2003 Sport Trac had the same issue after seven years of ownership. My left turn signal was not working and the flasher was clicking quickly. I should have come to the internet first before I swapped out the bulb (which did not work). Your answer lead me right to the problem.

I took the plastic housing off the steering column (unscrew the steering wheel tilt handle) and found the left turn signal wire was coming out of the plastic box as I tilted the steering wheel up and down. I did not have any electrical epoxy. I inserted a small tie wrap into the plastic box along with the wire to make it SNUG. I also noticed the wire for the right turn signal was also loose--so a piece of the tie wrap went in to that slot to make it snug. Replaced steering wheel housing. Three days wondering what the problem was, 45 minutes on the Internet researching, 45 minutes fixing the problem.

BTW: My father-in-law helped immensely--he found the answer here.

--Bill