Planecrazy361

@bbf2530, thanks for the clarification on the suppliers! I figured you were talking about others who had used a dremel to separate the lens from the body of the assembly. On the Audi, the lens is held on with an adhesive, so that makes for a cleaner repair, assuming the person doing the job is very patient with the removal. This is not my first "rodeo" with these sorts of lenses (the Milan lens) so I'm optimistic that I'll have a passable result if it comes to cutting. ? @alcohenusa, I DID see a post where one of the group members made the switch to the earlier model year lens sets and that's certainly a great suggestion. I am partial to the look of the less reliable 2010 style, though, so if I can't find any cold solder joints to repair when I open my lens, I may just gut the housing and use an aftermarket 12V tail light to rebuild the inside of the lens so that aesthetically it looks the same, though the light pattern itself might change (to a round set of LEDs, for example) It will obviously look different when the lights are on, but I don't mind that if I can gain the reliability without losing the look of the outer lens. I'd obviously wind up doing both sides for consistency, lol! We'll see how it goes! ? If I could only find some information on exactly what component typically fails inside the electronics of the lamp, it'd make it much easier to decide whether to try and resurrect the original LEDs or just replace the guts of the unit. ?

Thanks for the welcome and advice! I have already searched third party suppliers for this part and it seems that nobody currently offers an alternative to the factory part (that wasn't the situation two years ago when I initially searched but has, unfortunately, changed). I will certainly attempt to negotiate with a dealer if I'm forced to go that route. Regarding opening the "sealed" original unit, I have researched doing this job because my kids have a 2010 Audi A4 with a history of similar problems and I have to open and resolder one of their taillights. Thankfully, there are youtube videos and forum entries from others who have already "blazed a trail" on those lights, so I'm not starting from scratch. With the Milan, I have nothing to lose by trying and, hopefully, I will be able to add to the forum knowledgebase if I am successful. I was just hoping somebody had already given this a try. Oh well - I'll be the trailblazer, lol! Most likely I'll wind up separating the lens with a dremel and cutting wheel, and will report back how it goes. Regards, Steve

Hello, Fusion Forum Members! I am a longtime owner of a 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid Limited (purchased new by my parents) that is suffering (out of warranty, of course) from the dreaded LED tail light failure. It started to fail while the extended service bulletin was still in effect, but the minor difference in brightness I noticed was not enough that Ford would have replaced it at the time ... so I was forced to let it ride. It's been a great car, overall, and I am hoping to keep it for a long time because it still has the "lifetime" Sirius radio subscription active that my parents took advantage of when they bought it - LOVE having unlimited satellite radio! I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried to open up and repair the problem with the tail lamps on this model, as a general search of the internet doesn't come up with any obvious solutions. the cost of a replacement is close to $400 through the dealer, so I'm hoping to find an alternative, aside from finding a used one that will probably fail soon after I buy it. Any leads are appreciated! Worst case scenario, I'll tear it open and experiment with rebuilding it using aftermarket lights behind the stock lens. I'm just hoping that somebody has already blazed a trail that might be helpful! I've already repaired the common air conditioning problem with these cars, that requires the entire console and dash to be removed/shifted to replace a $25 temperature sensor deep in the center of the dashboard. That job took five hours but saved me at least $800-$1400, depending on who was quoting the job. At the end of the day, it wasn't too hard to do - just time consuming. I also did a 12V battery mod on my car to replace the tiny stock battery with a more capable one (video on youtube) since I have many electronic devices plugged into the 12v sockets in the car and the OEM battery just couldn't keep up. The new one has 200 more cold cranking amps, larger recovery capacity, and wasn't too hard to retrofit into the car (it was also cheaper than the stock unit). Anyway, that's my introduction for now - looking forward to learning more tips and tricks to go along with the mods I've already done on the car. Regards, Steve