Ford LED Tailgate Lightbar Installed

[AugMec]

Found this thread after purchasing my bar - curious, anyone successfully install without the drivers side issue? OP said he got a new harness - anyone reach out directly to Putco and get one? Finally - where instructions included - mine has none. Found them online, but found it odd.

I asked Putco support:

I just purchased VNZ6Z-13B678-A Halogen/Led Tailgate Light Bar and it came with no directions. While searching, I found the directions in the forums, but also multiple individuals saying after installation, the driver side taillight only works intermittently.

My questions are is there a way to tell if my unit is affected or is it all - if so should I wait to install?

I just received this from Putco support:

There did seem to be an issue with the pinning of our harness but we have since addressed this, the only way to know if you have a bad harness is to plug it in and see what happens sadly. If it is a bad one then please fill out the link below and we will swap it.

Guess I will give it a go....

Can you share the Link?

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[dennish]

Can you share the Link?

Opps - sorry nothing special - just off of their main site at the bottom:

https://www.putco.com/warranty/

 

[Rolmav]

Here's how they did mine.

 

[BoricuaBeautyx]

Here's how they did mine.

Wow, they mounted that high. Looks good though!

 

[Rolmav]

Wow, they mounted that high. Looks good though!

Yeah, it's a bit up there but, that's where they said Putco stated to mount it. I thought about finding some kind of reflective tape/ material to place on the under/back side of the tailgate so it can reflect and hopefully be seen better in daylight. Looks really good at night though, lol.

 

[Ottocycle]

To mount it lower you have to something along the lines of what I did with a spacer to clear the cutouts for the tailgate wiring harness and spare tire to mount it directly to the sheet metal. Also I did not run a wire to power the lights, just used the curt harness. Only thing I did to their harness was splice in the reverse light wire. Don't know why the Ford bar has a black spot in the middle, kinda pointless.

 

[dennish]

Need some help!

Ok - so I am not mechanically inclined... I went to my dealership to have my Lightbar installed and they said my bar was defective. For those of you that installed yourself or know the answer did you have to remove the 4 PIN trailer brake harness?

From the above screen capture, I am beginning to think that it was not properly wired at the 4 pin which may have caused the issues. The factory 4 pin is removed and the truck was displaying a trailer brake fault on the dash. The did have the Lightbar wired in but why remove the factory and would that have made a difference?

I guess my question is - how do your wire the trailer brake controller? Do you just remove the harness from the back the controller then plug it into connector, then the other end of cable to back of 4 pin? Why is the cover on the one end?

After that you just run the two other wires up to the taillights and plug in, correct?

Finally the video provided below from the shop:

I guess I am going to try and temp wire up myself to make certain it is actually defective. The only thing that ever worked was running light, brake light and reverse. Idk....

 

[CTYankee]

The factory 4 pin is removed and the truck was displaying a trailer brake fault on the dash. The did have the Lightbar wired in but why remove the factory and would that have made a difference?

I guess my question is - how do your wire the trailer brake controller? Do you just remove the harness from the back the controller then plug it into connector, then the other end of cable to back of 4 pin? Why is the cover on the one end?

The factory 4-pin should not have been removed.

For the Ford/Putco light bar, there is a separate harness that plugs into the tail light harness and a wire that runs to the battery. The factory 4-pin isn't involved at all. There is another 4-pin that comes as part of the light bar harness and that's where the light bar should plug in. It's designed to operate completely independent of the factory tow system.

 

[Ottocycle]

Since you have it plugged into the trailer 4 pin, the truck thinks it has a trailer connected. You need to wire it into the tail light circuit as others have mentioned

 

[BlueSpec1]

I have the Ford light bar VNZ6Z13B678A and waiting to install till I see what method seems to work for others.
I'm assuming the one I received has to have +12V wired into the Putco harness like mentioned.
Putco: “Coming out of the blade box you will see 2 red wires, one side will have a heat shrink and one side is plain. Cut the side with the heat shrink and give power to the plain side.”

Looking thru a couple of their other light bar instruction sheets: 92009I, 92010I, it looks like the wire with the heat shrink going into their box gets capped and the other side of the wire goes to +12V.

My VNZ6Z13B678A Driver (Blade) Box:

 

[dennish]

The factory 4-pin should not have been removed.

For the Ford/Putco light bar, there is a separate harness that plugs into the tail light harness and a wire that runs to the battery. The factory 4-pin isn't involved at all. There is another 4-pin that comes as part of the light bar harness and that's where the light bar should plug in. It's designed to operate completely independent of the factory tow system.

Thanks for the reply!

Agree the dealer removed the 4pin and attempted install. So know I am back to original.

For me to test, I should run each wire to the individual taillight assembly and put inline with with the connectors.

The I should, or shouldn't, put the 4 pins harness inline with the wiring (not plugged into the 4pin)? That is where I am confused. The directions Putco sent say:

• Depress tab and unplug factory harness. Note: halogen tail lamp vehicle pictured here. LED tail lamp harness is in the same location but connector is different.

• Plug the Blade Harness into factory wiring. Ensure plugs audibly “click” into place.

• Route the wires behind the bumper. Connect 4 pin connector and Weather Pack connectors to Blade Harness. Note: Putco recommends using di-electric grease on 4 pin connector to help keep connection water resistant. Zip-tie wires and Blade driver box in safe location, away from debris, hot exhaust pipes, or pinch points.

There were no additional wires provided except those pictured.

 

[CTYankee]

I believe the instructions are talking about the taillight harness but it's hard to know without the instructions in front of me. I used the Putco (not the Ford version) light bar with a Curt T-harness, so I've never seen the Ford version instructions and they are apparently not available on the Putco website.

 

[dennish]

This is what Putco sent to me and I furnished the dealer. From this I can't see why they would remove the 4 Pin connector.

Most expensive no working product I have purchased in a long time Between the purchase price and the dealer charging me for nothing.

 

[BoricuaBeautyx]

This is what Putco sent to me and I furnished the dealer. From this I can't see why they would remove the 4 Pin connector.

Most expensive no working product I have purchased in a long time Between the purchase price and the dealer charging me for nothing.

Man, I don't know why they didn't check the light bar before they sold it out. I've had another Putco lightbar before this one and same issue. I'm really happy they got it working with this one, but it's dumb that they didn't check it

 

[CTYankee]

This is what Putco sent to me and I furnished the dealer. From this I can't see why they would remove the 4 Pin connector.

Most expensive no working product I have purchased in a long time Between the purchase price and the dealer charging me for nothing.

The instructions should have been more explicit that the only harnesses they were referencing were the taillight harnesses and the light bar harnesses. There is nothing there that has anything to do with the factory tow harness.

The light bar has a trailer-side 4-pin connector that mates with a truck-side 4-pin connector on the taillight adapter harness (NOT the factory one). we actually cut off both 4-pin connectors and spliced them together to avoid corrosion at the connectors.

Has the dealer put the factory 4-pin back in place and confirmed that it is working properly? It sounds like the light bar is still not working, though.

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