Headlight Switch Problems of Mercury Marauder

The contact owns a 2003 Mercury Marauder. The contact stated while driving the headlights would suddenly shut off. The contact also indicated that while operating the high beam lights the light switch would not remain in the on position causing the lights to shut off. The contact notified the dealer and was advised that the defect was caused by a faulty lcm (light control module). The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified and no solution was offered. The failure mileage was 110,000.

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Headlights in 2004 Mercury Marauder began going out intermittently at about 60k miles, also intermittently not coming on when turned on by switch. They now rarely stay on for more than 5 minutes at a time. This is undoubtedly related to the widely reported failure of motorola-manufactured Ford lighting control module (lcm, Ford p/n 4w7z13c788bb) units in many Ford 'panther' platform models (crown vic, grand marquis, Marauder) through model year 2004. Nhtsa action pe08066 addresses this issue. The Ford/Mercury dealer I sought service for this issue from recommended replacement of the lcm at a cost of $700 for parts and labor. The part is available through internet sources from $300 to $500. The dealer would not guarantee that this part replacement would fix the intermittent headlight problem, so I have decided to purchase and replace the unit myself and return the part if this does not correct the problem. This is an issue of public safety that should be addressed by a recall -- cars traveling at night without headlights are a danger to the driving and pedestrian public. It is hard to fathom why the NHTSA would disagree with this logic and close this investigation. Since many owners and third-parties are now sharing stories and home-grown solutions on the internet (replacing/re-soldering the defective nec relay p/n eq1-11111s, which is the root cause of the problem), the NHTSA is passing ownership and responsibility of Ford's bad manufacturing decision on to vehicle owners. This is a terrible message to give the public, it further erodes any trust a consumer could possibly have in Ford products. The huge volume of fleet vehicles (taxi, police, municipal) that are affected makes this an even more critical safety issue. The NHTSA should have its legal position prepared for a worst-case scenario in which an accident resulting in death is linked to this defect.

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