Recon Tail Light Issues

[killswitch engage]

So I had the Recon smoked red tail lights in my Raptor. Up until about two weeks ago, I had no issues, but then the driver's side turn signal began to hyperflash. I contacted Recon and they sent me new resistors saying that was my problem. I never installed them, as that was only part of the issue.

The existing resistors and wire connectors were in terrible shape. The white connector (sorry no pic) that connects to the stock harness was completely rotted out and the resistors were pretty corroded.

I spliced all the connector wiring on the back of the light and used heat shrink to seal the splice. For the resistors, I pulled out the resistor pack, cleaned the circuit board pads with a dremel and small wire brush, then re-soldered all the resistors to the board.

This solved all my issues. The extra resistors Recon sent will be installed next time the resistor pack corrodes to the point of not working.

Figured this might help a few people out since I see lots of complaints and not many solutions.

 

[Deleted member 12951]

We've known for years that the solution is not to buy Recon, problem solved.

Amazes me that they send you a resistor to replace instead of replacing the whole unit. The average Joe doesn't have the skill set like you do and can't see how Recon expects the consumer to do that.

 

[cubiefan101]

My spyder led taillights did the same thing. I've tried cleaning out the resistors from all the corrosion but it inevitably keeps coming back. Finally had to resort to splicing in aftermarket resistors. So far it has worked.

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

 

[killswitch engage]

@RDFTS - totally agree. Stay away from Recon and probably most other aftermarket light manufacturers if you don't have some technically abilities because you are most likely at some point going to be ******** around with the wiring and resistors when the lights stop working.

I think unless you go with someone who is retrofitting and providing quality hardware (RSiworks, Raptor Retrofit, etc.) it's best to just stick with stock (as hard as that is to say).

Before I started, I looked for what other people were doing when their lights failed and found lots of threads with guys trying to install these replacement resistors from Recon and having no idea what they were doing. On top of that they were using the cheap puncture-the-insulation-style splices which are complete shit and should never be used IMO.

I had the Recon headlights too and they were complete crap - I retrofitted those myself with parts from TRS. Never again will I waste my money on Recon. Lesson learned.

 

[bprsnt]

My Recon tail lights are two years old and have been nothing but problems. In the trash they go.

 

[Deckmaster]

I spliced all the connector wiring on the back of the light and used heat shrink to seal the splice. For the resistors, I pulled out the resistor pack, cleaned the circuit board pads with a dremel and small wire brush, then re-soldered all the resistors to the board.

This solved all my issues. The extra resistors Recon sent will be installed next time the resistor pack corrodes to the point of not working.

Figured this might help a few people out since I see lots of complaints and not many solutions.

Thanks for the good info. Sorry for digging up an older thread. Would you happen to know the wiring diagram for the resistors? Are they just simply in series? Also what is the load the provide? I am having issues with a set of Recon tail lights that were on the truck when I bought it. I am going to have to source the connectors that link them to the truck, and rebuild the packs at some point. I figure if I can source some load resistors like these on SuperBright to fix them https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...-turn-signal-hyper-flash-warning-fix/190/831/

Thanks

 

[bprsnt]

Gave the Recons one more chance

My Recon tail lights were installed by Ford when I bought the truck new.

The tail lights have always been glitchy and had intermittent issues from the get go. I noticed in the past that the load resistors Ford installed were taped to the wiring harness. I thought it was strange being there were mounting holes on the resistors to secure them to the truck body.

I ended up buying the exact load resistors like SuperBright on Amazon. (Just search 6 ohm 50 watt)
When I received the resistors there was a warning sticker stating that they MUST be mounted to steel frame or will overheat.

I simply mounted the new load resistors on the flat body panel inside behind the tail light and have had ZERO issues since.

The resistors are wired in parallel with the signal/Brake light.