Hey all! First time poster here. Just bought a used 2002 E150 I6 van last week and I'm excited to start actually using it! Before I can, I have to figure out why none of my rear lights are working (turn signals, brake lights, and all).

I screwed the light assemblies off today and found that the wires aren't even wired up. On the left side, the wires are cut, and on the right, the bulbs are there, but no male connector to plug into the bulbs. Will have to replace those. I looked around for some connectors or loose wires on both sides, but couldn't find anything that looked immediately obvious. I did find two connectors on the right side that look like it comes from the rear cargo door. I'll attach a picture.

I'm having a tough time finding a wiring diagram involving that rear door connector, or anything that would tell me where the wiring for the rear lights could be. Do I have to probe each pin while pressing the breaks/turning the blinkers on to figure out what each pin does?

Also found some box in the cargo area that has a lot of wires coming out of it. There are some connectors that are not plugged into anything could these maybe be the rear lights?

Also, any idea why anyone would cut the rear lights like this?

Thanks!

Rear right light assembly taken off. The two wires look like they are coming from the right cargo door.

Box in the cargo area. There are some unconnected connectors here. Not sure what they are for.

 

There are times when you just have to start from the beginning and this situation appears like one of them.
Suggest the following;
Invest in a good quality test light
a roll of masking tape and pen
with these items you now need to connect the test lite to a good clean ground connection at the rear of your vehicle.
Pick one of the plugs in the hole for a rear light assy , turn on the parking lights and confirm the front parking lights are working . If none work start checking all the fuses. Then go to the rear lamp space, carefully touch each connection in that plug and see if any one of those connections cause the test light to illuminate, if you find one place a piece of masking tape on it saying PKG Lamps. If you can't find one , check the other plug.. You should get one of the contacts to lite the light. If none work you will need to go to the inside of the vehicle and behind the driver's seat area or under the door sill look for a wire harness and trace it to a plug that then sends the harness to the rear of the vehicle.Do the same check at the contacts at that plug looking for a wire that has power to it and lights the test lite, Make sure the grounding clip of the test light has a good connection with a clean part of metal on the vehicle. You should have power to one of those contacts. Let us know what you find..

 

Thanks so much for your reply! Didn't see it until now. I checked some of the fuses for the lights, and they looked fine. I'll go through all of them and make sure they're good. I didn't think to use the vehicle frame as ground. That's a really good idea, thanks. Saves me effort in trying to find the ground pin. I don't have a test light, but I do have a multimeter. I can just use that, right? As long as the pin is doing what I want it to do (turns on in reverse/left blinker/right blinker) I should be able to use it for the light right? Should I expect to see 0V/12V on the pins that connect to the lights?

 

At this point we don't know if the lights were removed and sold or some other reason, but we can go on this for now. I don't know until I look further if there could be other reasons for the lights not to work
You can use a voltmeter, but a test light is much easier and quicker. When you get power to the particular light circuit you should read 12 volts. To save you some time, turn on the Hazard flashers and you can check both sides for stop lights at the rear at the same time.

 

Cool thanks. I have the actual light assemblies and bulbs. The only thing that is missing is the wiring. Is there something else that could have been removed and sold that you are referring to?

 

Without actually examining the entire vehicle , It is impossible for me to suggest anything. I did not even know you removed or had the lights , I made the mistake of assuming they were missing at the time you purchased the vehicle. Were they on the vehicle at the time you purchased it?

 

Apologies, what I meant was, is there something else besides the actual bulbs that could have been taken out and would need replacing, like a lights controller or something. Guess I won't know until I dig in further.

Yes, I had the lights when I purchased the vehicle. I made the mistake of not checking them and assuming they worked. I found out shortly after that the lights weren't on, and when I screwed off the light assemblies to investigate, I found that the 'van side' of the wiring was completely missing. All I have are the bulbs and housing.

 

First you need the bulb sockets that are wired to the plugs. A salvage yard might be a good place to start, otherwise see if a dealership parts dept has them. Somebody probably used the sockets for something else. Best to get the sockets and bulbs , plug them in and see what you get. Depending on how far they got into there would determine how much more you might have to do. Could be that is all you need to do Sometimes we get lucky !