This is my wife's automobile. She gets regular maintenance on the vehicle including inspections. She reported to me that for a second time she was going to have to get the entire lens of the rear light assembly replaced at a cost in excess or $100 dollars. I found it improbable that this was happening to both rearlight in a random fashion and had her tell me the problem. She reported that were unable to remove the bulb because the heat from the bulb had warped the housing, (as it had done previously to the other side). I will detail below how the problem was solved below, but the point is, for this to occur in near identicle fashion to the light on the opposite side of this vehicle (and in the same fashion that many owners previosly posted this Complaint Thread), points to it being a Ford design fault, and as such should be covered by the company. Instead of owning up to the fact that this is a known problem with this model, the dealership in our case, implied the heat warping of the lens housing and the socket as a part of wear and tear on an aging vehicle. REALLY?

As noted by someone's previous post, this could be a potential fire hazard if the reported heating set the lens on fire.

THE FIX FOR OUR CAR.

I took the assembly apart and could see the heat warpage that made the removal of the bulb and socket difficult, but with 1 min. of jiggling I was able to remove the socket and bulb. The socket showed heat damage but appeared to be still functional. After first putting a new bulb into the socket I struggled to get the unit back into the lens. Replacing the Socket/bulb into the housing took about 25 min as I had to reshape the housing in small increments with a dremel tool to permit the bulb and socket to slip back into the lens, yet still allow it to seat firmly. Reinstalled the lens cover and the unit functioned fine. I suspect depending on the amount of warpage some will not be able to remove the socket/bulb from the lens housing without first figuring out a way to reshape the housing with a dremel of application of heat.

i currently own a 2005 ford focus and have noticed that in the last 2 months my tail lights are beginning to melt. at first, i noticed a tiny divot in my lights after i just spent $150 to have a friend of mine who owns a custom car shop to smoke the tail lights. i originally thought nothing of it until i came out of work today to notice that i now have a crater in my back driver's lens and it is now starting on my passenger side. the car had been sitting in the sun all day and i never noticed it in the morning. i have had the lights smoked for almost 6 months now and originally thought it could have been a problem regarding that, but after doing a bit of research, i have found that i am not the only one. especially considering that other people have had the same problem with a lot less mileage. people wonder why we cant put trust into our north American automakers. they gouge our pockets, and allow us to drive around in rubbish. I have had my focus for almost 1.5 years now, bought it second hand. i do enjoy it, but after an incident like this which will cost me at least 400-500 to fix. i understand every auto manufacturer has its problems but this is ridiculous. spend a little more money on r&d and a little less in the exec's f&*@$n bank accounts. this will definitely be the last domestic vehicle i will ever buy. and i will be contacting ford of Canada Monday morning and making myself heard.

Not one, but both of the casings for our rear/brake signal lights melted. That meant that the lamp assembly, or hole, that the light bulb socket goes into, melted in both the left and right rear lights even though we never changed the bulbs before. The casing, or lamp assembly, became warped after melting so that we couldn't even twist the light bulb socket to change the bulb.

This is incredibly frustrating. It should have taken us no more than $4 to buy and change a light bulb. Instead it took the Ford dealership $181.89 to replace the left casing (lamp asy), bulb and socket asy. I'll have to pay that much to replace the right one as well.

I contacted the Ford's customer relation's division. They say they are sticking with the dealership's explanation that this is not covered by our warranty because it's due to stop-and-go traffic. My question is this, even if this is do to stop-and-go traffic, why is Ford putting in plastic parts that can't withstand the heat generated from light bulbs in stop-and-go traffic? I don't even drive as much as I used to in other cars. I never had melting problems with the lighting before. Does this mean that Ford Focus' can not be driven in city traffic where there is inevitably stop-and-go traffic? I am extremely frustrated both with the problem and with Ford's response to it.