Improved Rear Lighting-2020 Ford Edge SEL

[BMWR1200c]

I bought this car in July and like a lot about it. There's other things I don't like so much, but have been addressing and improving these things over time. One of the worst design features of this car is the absolute anemic rear lighting. With the rear hatch lights not functional in this 2020 SEL trim model, and the cost to upgrade to Titanium or ST hatch lights, I knew there had to be a better solution. I needed more "rear facing" lights mostly for safety reasons, as opposed to "side lighting", which is mostly what the current tail lights give me.

Came across Zeus 3D Printing in Clearwater, Florida owned by Emil Katzarski quite accidentally during an extensive Google search:

https://zeus3d.net/?srsltid=AfmBOorO0O2DjTbDAtMV25AiJb1mms3rWaBZ3b_Lf2Hg2sQetAp7yW8u

 

After several phone conversations and e-mails, I pulled the trigger on a pair of his "ST Rear Reflector Replacements":

https://zeus3d.net/products/2019-ford-edge-rear-reflector-replacement

Ordered them on 10/4/2024 and received them today on 11/7/2024. They're custom made, not sitting on a shelf, and I suppose the recent hurricane didn't help. I ordered "custom color with LED strips" which got me the matt black version. Cost was $60 for the set of two, and there's a discount code for free shipping.

 

Here's a pictorial of how I did the installation, and why I did it the way I did. First side took me about an hour or an hour and a half, as there was a learning curve. Second side took all of maybe 15 minutes.

 

First, tail lights need to be removed. There's a little square shaped plastic plug which is (gently) and easily pried off with a small flat head screwdriver. Under that is a T25 torx head screw that needs to be removed. I put some painter's tape inside that recess prior to removing that screw, so if I dropped it, it wouldn't disappear into the abyss. Then I followed a YouTube video (there are several) to slide the tail light rearward and remove it. There are simply pins in the housing that go into recessed holes in the body. Only thing is I tried masking tape like the guy in the video did, and it immediately ripped. Duct  tape worked much better. Once the light has been removed from the body, just unplug the connector coming out of the light from the other connector fixed to the body. Set the light aside.

 

Next I had to remove the OEM reflector. Its got 2 plastic pins and 2 "springy" plastic clips. Each pin is supposed to have a metal push nut on it, but mine only had the one push nut on the top pin. Either it fell off many years ago, or was never installed. Either way, here's a photo of what's supposed to be there:

 

Here's what the push nut looks like:

 

Even though I know it was pushed on, I used a 10mm deep socket on a 1/4" drive ratchet with an extension to unscrew it. Used the same method to reinstall it although you might want to try actually pushing it back on to avoid the possibility of breaking one of the new pins. Thankfully I broke nothing today (for a change)!

 

Here's a comparison of the OEM reflector and the new LED light (more later):

 

 

For the installation of the new lights I added a bit of extra 3M double sided tape just for insurance, and wiped down the recess that it fits into with rubbing alcohol first:

 

Now.....how do you get to said OEM reflector? Well I'll tell you it's MUCH easier removing the rear wheels first. Gives you much easier access to what you'll need to get at. Also, I removed all the bolts holding in the rear wheel well/fender liners. I think there were like 6 or 7 of those (7/32") around the perimeter of the liner, and two 10mm cap nuts (one towards the front of the well, and one straight ahead over the brake rotor. I did not remove the liner......just took all the fasteners off so I could bend the liner out of my way without creasing or breaking it. However that only allows you to access the lower part of the OEM reflector. To access the upper part (in my case to access the push nut), I partially removed the top of the quarter panel where its simply held in with 4 tabs under the tail light assembly, and then the part that goes around the wheel wheel (I think there were 4 metal clips that just popped out there). I did the top first (pretty gently) then slid my fingers towards the front, and the remaining clips around the wheel well popped easily out. I expected cheap plastic that was bound to break, but they're all pretty robust. I wouldn't yank on them, but easy prying with fingertip pressure was more than enough.

 

Here's a few pics:

Inner wheel well.....

 

Inner wheel well after fastener removal.....

 

Top quarter panel tabs under tail light....

 

 

Quarter panel wheel well tabs......

 

Views of OEM reflector from inside

 

Used one hand to gently pull the quarter panel away from the body and the other to remove the push nut, and squeeze the 2 plastic retainer ends together. Then the reflector simply pushes out.

 

When installing the replacement, you'll need to feed the 2 wires from the LED strip up towards the OEM tail light plug. DO NOT make the mistakes I did.....

DO NOT try to feed the wires through EITHER of these holes:

 

If you do this, there's not enough room for the new light to lay flat in the recess. On one side I drilled a tiny hole UNDER the bottom square one, and fed the wires through there. On the other side (for some reason) there was enough space to feed them in without drilling. Can't see the hole I drilled anyway, so I'm over it. Also, clip the connectors off the ends of the new light. You don't need them, and they're too large to fit through a small hole (if indeed you choose to drill):

 

Here's a few pics of that process with inside and outside views:

 

 

 

 

 

Also, the LED strip slides into the bottom of the new 3D printed housing. DON'T FORGET to insert the LED strip into that B-E-F-O-R-E pressing the fixture into the body. Double-sided tape is a bear to remove if you forget.

 

 

 

 

At this stage, assuming you've fed the new wires up towards where you need them, you can reinstall the fender liner.

 

Electrical-wise. I used a test light on the harness that remained in the body to check for grounds and hots. There's 6 wires coming out of the light fixture, but only 5 pins in the onboard socket. The delivery came with a bunch of plastic snap splices, but I prefer Posi-Taps. The 20-22g ones worked fine. I bought them on Amazon but you can buy them direct or shop around. You only need four. Two for the grounds and two for the hots.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3815XSG?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

 

In the harness plug, there's 3 pins on one side, and 2 on the other (with a blank space next to them). The pin closest to the empty space matched up with one of the black ground wires coming out of the tail light housing harness. The pin next to that matched up with a solid green wire coming out of the tail light housing harness.

 

Here's how and where I tapped into them:

Socket that stays in the car with 2 pins on bottom, and 3 on top....

 

Posi-Taps: (22g)......

 

Once the wires are tapped, good idea to plug the tail light back in, turn on your parking lights or headlights and make sure everything is working. If so, slide the headlight pins back into the holes, replace the T25 screw (shove something in the hole in case you drop it), push the plastic trim piece back over the hole, and you're all done.

 

Here's how they look unlit (they are available in most any custom color you want):

 

 

 

 

Here's how horrible my car's rear lighting was before:

 

And here's the after:

 

 

I gotta say, it was worth the wait, worth the money and worth the time I spent today. Oh yeah, no bumper removal was required. No body parts were actually removed at all. Just loosened and pushed out of the way. All in all, maybe 2 to 2-1/2 hours.

Basic hand tools and a little patience went a long way. I highly recommend this relatively easy, inexpensive upgrade if you have the same feelings I did.

Beats the heck out of trying to find reasonably priced used Titanium or ST lights, or the European fog light thing, then trying to figure out how to get them to work.

 

I tried to summarize this as best I could. Feel free to ask any additional questions if you think I missed something.........

 

P.S. These serve as "running" lights and are on when either the parking lights or headlights are turned on. They are not spliced into, nor function as turn signals or brake lights. If you choose you can figure out which wire feeds the brake lights or turn signals and tap into either of those lines instead, but these replacements are SINGLE feature lights.

Edited November 8 by BMWR1200c

[Wubster100]

The lights look very nice! Lots of detailed photos. Thanks for sharing. It doesn't look like these new lights are able to reflect light, so it doesn't seem legal. I wonder if the original reflectors are able to be modified to fit lights inside of them.

 

It seems impossible to find used ST / Titanium lights without paying a high price. I would love to know if it is possible to physically fit the center tail light from a 2015-2018 Edge.

Edited November 8 by Wubster100

[BMWR1200c]

The new lights are not reflectors. They are solid matt black with an LED strip inserted inside. Not sure about the legality but in my opinion they serve the same purpose if not improve why reflectors were installed there in the first place.

Here's the stock reflector:

 

They are 3/8" thick. I suppose if one were motivated enough, one could slice it open to see if there's enough room to insert an LED strip in-between the halves since it looks hollow inside, then glue it back together. Guess it would be both a reflector and light then. I'm not inclined to do that right now.

 

Or perhaps use a Dremel and just cut a notch in just the bottom end of the the reflector to insert the LED strip?

 

I would also add that it seems only one push nut was installed by Ford on one pin of each reflector (even though the service manual shows 2), as can be clearly seen by the cut-in threads on one post, and no marks at all on the second one:

 

 

Edited November 8 by BMWR1200c

[omar302]

3 hours ago, BMWR1200c said:

The new lights are not reflectors. They are solid matt black with an LED strip inserted inside. Not sure about the legality but in my opinion they serve the same purpose if not improve why reflectors were installed there in the first place.

 

You have lost the reflective function, hence when the lights are off there the vehicle is less visible. In other words, it can be deemed less safe. 

[BMWR1200c]

My lights are off in the daytime when the reflectors serve no real purpose. Since a car behind me can only light up my reflectors at night when their headlights are on, and both our lights are off during daylight (when there is no reflectivity), I see no issues since my ex-reflectors now light up. But I understand your point.

[dabangsta]

It is when it parked at night that reflectors are a safety feature. You might not be in it, or you might be, with the lights off. That is why the disclaimer on the site for them, but I don't think the do enough to let people know they are removing a safety feature.

 

They are required, and there is a height limit and regulations on if they can be on a moveable section (trunk lid, liftgate...they can't), that is why you see more CUV/SUVs with them (previous generation it was a strip under the lift gate). I find that many vehicles that move the turn signals or the brake lights (again, probably because they have to be on a stationary section of vehicle that doesn't move like a trunk lid), but they are so disconnected from the tail lights that they appear to be an additional vehicle somehow.

[Wubster100]

5 hours ago, dabangsta said:

I find that many vehicles that move the turn signals or the brake lights, but they are so disconnected from the tail lights that they appear to be an additional vehicle somehow.

On some vehicles, such as the Lincoln MKC / Corsair, there are tail lights in the bumper, but they are only used when the liftgate is open.