All lighting on Marauder quit this morning....

[BAD MERC]

Everything was okie-dokie on my way to work today, went to throw on the turn signal (Yes, I use them) and there was no clicking. Had a guy in an Altima tell me I had no brake lights. Pulled over in the shade to scope out the fuses and found nothing bad. No interior lights, turnsignals, brake lights, hazards, parking lights or headlights (only flash-to-pass). It is now in the capable hands of Claude (CarFixer) at Scanlon Lincoln-Mercury. I believe the LCM (lighting control module) above the gas pedal may be the culprit. They will probably tell me it's the stereo or alarm that did it. Anyone wanna place your bets?

[MitchB]

LCM was just replaced on my father's 03MM. Seems to be a high frequency of failure.

Mitch

[RoyLPita]

I only bet on "sure things". Keep us posted.

[Donny Carlson]

Everything was okie-dokie on my way to work today, went to throw on the turn signal (Yes, I use them) and there was no clicking. Had a guy in an Altima tell me I had no brake lights. Pulled over in the shade to scope out the fuses and found nothing bad. No interior lights, turnsignals, brake lights, hazards, parking lights or headlights (only flash-to-pass). It is now in the capable hands of Claude (CarFixer) at Scanlon Lincoln-Mercury. I believe the LCM (lighting control module) above the gas pedal may be the culprit. They will probably tell me it's the stereo or alarm that did it. Anyone wanna place your bets?

It's your LCM. Mine failed, too. Hope its under warranty, because it's an expensive part.

When mine took a dump, all the lights stayed on all the time.

Interesting that your safety lockout didn't engage with the brake lights.

[BAD MERC]

Well, I have the car back. Claude was out today and I will NEVER go back unless he's there. They said the LCM locked up because of my "hyper blue" headlights which are, in fact - Silverstars. I guess I will look tomorrow to see if the sylvania's were taken and replaced with 'ricer lights'. They said that they disconnected the battery and the LCM reset itself. Funny thing is - the ESN feature on my Eclipse DVD player would have gone into secure mode if power was disconnected and my CD library would have to be re-programmed for the CD changers. None of this happened. What DID happen was most of my DVD was watched for the day and I was lied to about service performed. Happy to have the car back? You bet! Happy with my treatment today? Use your own expletives if you must.

[carfixer]

Unfortunatly I had to take the day off for personal reasons. I was, however, in contact with the service department by cell phone. The subject of your car was one of my calls today.

The car came in with no lights. First thing I was informed of was that the car is equipped with a lot of electrical add-ons and accessories, such as LED's, alarm, DVD player, and aftermarket headlight bulbs. The car also had the A/C head location swapped with the radio position which requires extending wiring. Upon further inspection, it was found that the LCM wire harness was tapped in several locations. Since you did not install the "hyper blue" headlight bulbs yourself, you don't know if stock wattage or higher wattage bulbs were used. Any and all of the above modifications can cause an LCM failure. Power was removed from the LCM and reconnected and the lights came back on and now everything works.

The LCM in this car is not warrantable due to your modifications.
That would be the policy on my car as well as your's.

By the way, the flat rate tech that spend 1 1/2 hours on your car got paid nothing.

He's the one who should be using expletives.

[Hotrauder]

This is why personal relationships are so important. Often the service writer has no clear understanding of the actual service work performed and what is involved so their explanations are not always on the money or complete. If we are not there to watch and learn from the tech we have no real understanding either. So, unhappy service tech, unhappy dealership, unhappy customer who is the ONLY winner here. I think we all understand both sides of the issue and we also are paranoid about our cars. No one questions carfixer's integrity and we all understand where silver2004Mrauder is coming from. This never is an easy situation. I am blessed by my blind luck to stumble on my car at a close to home dealership that appreciated it as much as I and allows me to get in the way. ask stupid questions and make friends "out back" where to work happens. Dennis

[Tallboy]

Let me get this straight-you tapped into the LCM, more than once, and you're complaining about the service dept? The tech who fixed the problem likely caused by your mods was paid nothing, and you're the one complaining? :bs:

My guess is if not for the good graces of Carfixer, you'd have been getting out your checkbook. I'd get back to the dealership tomorrow, find the tech who worked on the car, and make it right.

For future refence, you can unplug the LCM and it will reset itself. No need to disconnect the battery.

[BAD MERC]

Claude - by no means did I intend to offend or be unappreciative of the work on my car today. Fact is; automotive electrical engineering is what I do - and I am never nervous about integrating into a system. The wires I tapped into at the LCM 10 months ago were as follows: driver door trigger (Blue, pin 11, gray 22 pin plug.), cumulative passenger door triggers (Black/orange, pin 11, gray 16 pin plug.) Trunk trigger; (brown/white, pin 5, gray 16P plug). These wires sit at rest and go to ground when their respective switch is opened. The parking light circuit I tapped turns all the exterior lights on when a 200mA ground activates it. I am sure that the LCM issue was a fluke - but that is where I get all trigger wires on Ford vehicles. Or at the GEM module. The relocation of my HVAC controls required cutting and extending nothing and was simply moved up with all the connections as they were. I am sure that putting an alarm in a Marauder is way easier than putting an integrated radar detector in an '06 BMW 760. I didn't sweat either job. I did the security on Tom's Marauder and he has never had an issue. Didn't mean to upset you my friend - I am sure you DO NOT need that with what you're going through.

[shakes_26]

The FLM techs don't work on aftermarket alarms, radar detectors, or the like. Consider yourself lucky they didn't charge you, they could have hosed you for an LCM. You should stop by and take care of the Tech.

Next time I suggest you take your car to another dealer, see how well your received there with your aftermarket equipment, It will be a learning experience.


Claude - by no means did I intend to offend or be unappreciative of the work on my car today. .

[Drock96Marquis]

You should stop by and take care of the Tech. +1, that would be a very nice gesture.

Also, he may have just unplugged the LCM rather than disconnecting the battery. I know I would be afraid of who knows what happening to your equipment if I played with the battery, which is one of many reasons service depts. aren't mod-friendly.

The LCM is very touchy, it doesn't like different bulbs (whether it be higher watted, LED, etc.) substituted for the correct ones. I would use regular 9007 lamps (ie XtraVisions) for a while and see if the problem re-occurs. If so, look elsewhere in the system. If it doesn't, swap your SilverStars abck in and if it happens again, stay stock.

[BAD MERC]

I wanted to apologize to everyone I pissed off yesterday. On my side of the situation - I was talked to like I blatantly did a dime-store job and carelessly caused a fault. I have been under dashes for 19 years and cars are getting difficult to work on with new data-bus and multiplex integration. In my trade, I have an impeccible installation history and work on very expensive and exotic cars quite frequently. I am serious about my job as are the dealer trained techs that work their butts off to be on top of the ever-growing technical trauma that automakers put them through. In the morning I will stop by Scanlon Lincoln/ Mercury and thank the tech for fixing my ailing Marauder. AND... hook him up with a folding green dead president. I wanted to apologize especially to Claude for dragging him into the middle of this situation. Claude is a friend, a fellow Marauder owner and the ONLY man on the planet that I trust with my keys.

[gpfarrell]

Kudos to all you guys.

I really think this is one of the most impressive threads I've ever read and it speaks volumes about what a class group of people you are... life isn't all burnouts and beating Corvettes... how you handle the curves counts too, and it seems everybody involved handled the curves thrown at them like true gentlemen. Now, that is representin'!!!

[Motorhead350]

Next time I suggest you take your car to another dealer, see how well your received there with your aftermarket equipment, It will be a learning experience.


HA! I learned that lession already.