Hi all,

I have had a good look through forums and the like but still at a dead end. 

 

I have a 2010 S-Max Titanium with the 2L Ecoboost engine (I'm very familiar with the Mk3 Focus ST) and my offside sidelight on the actual boot lid/hatch is non-operational. All I know is that it stopped working at some point over the last year. I've owned the car for some time now and not really had any issues that weren't easy fixes other than this. The other lights all work fine.

 

First I replaced the cluster to find that the sidelight was still non-op. I managed to find the wire responsible (White w/Orange stipe) and traced this back to the junction in the boot (nearside panel), it simply was not powering the light. I removed the rubber grommets between the chassis and the hatch, all in very good condition with no shorts there, I also checked continuity from the light connector to the junction in the boot and all good there (<0.5Ohm). I see that there's a rudimentary PDM system within the BCM so I also disconnected the battery to reset and still no avail. Then it was discovered that if I put the sidelights on AND the foglight, then the sidelight works?!

 

It's got me baffled currently and I sincerely hope it's not a BCM issue as that's rather £££. It did have a very poorly fitted electrical connection near the tow bar which was removed. I'm a competent and technical person especially with wiring but it's knowing where to find particular junctions within the SMax which is always the fun part! Does anyone know of what/why through a similar issue or one you've fixed before I tear the boot apart to look for an issue. The boot release button slowly died a year ago but I seldom use it and haven't gotten around to replacing it yet!

 

Thanks

FINALLY fixed.

So there was a broken wire but it was intermittently connecting during boot hatch openings and testing. The foglight bit had me completely bamboozeled but the grommet between the hatch and body was removed again but rather than checking one side then the other, pulled the grommet all the way back to find the WHT/ORG wire snapped but still held in place with the wrapping exactly in the middle.

 

Bit of wire repair and it's all good and back to normal!