[BoostedApe]

So I recently got interested in the '15-'19 Mustangs puddle lamps, or the "Pony Lazers". Both of my lamps went bad so I ordered an extra lamp for my passenger side view mirror. I got the passenger side light for around $25, but the driver side light will cost you about double that. (I guess the driver side light sells better?)

Anyway. I couldn't find much information at all online for these puddle lamps. How they work, what exactly it is that makes them go bad, etc. I expect the damage to the lights are due to water, or more specifically, condensation. I completely took apart my broken passenger side lamp and documented the process. Maybe this will give some insight about the inner workings of these things:

(ALL images are fairly large and are able to be zoomed. After clicking on the thumbnail, click "open in a new window" to view enlarged versions!)

1. This is the light from my OLD passenger side puddle lamp. It definitely looks to be damaged by water/condensation.


2. This is, of course, the new lamp installed. MUCH better!


3. Thiese are images of the OLD puddle lamp. Let's break it down piece by piece.


4. I saw on another forum that someone was saying they think that rocks are being kicked up during driving and scratching the plastic cover on the light, which in turn causes the distortion. There are definitely scratches on this little plastic cover, but I did test the light again WITHOUT this plastic cover and the scratches you see make absolutely no difference at all. (Second image is the OLD puddle lamp without this plastic cover.)
View attachment 27151 View attachment 27155

5. Just a shot of the puddle lamp without it's clear plastic cover. You start to get a better idea of how it is put together at this point.
View attachment 27153

6. This is the OLD puddle lamp's underside. I simply pried this metal piece off with a flat head screwdriver. The black material that I pried this metal piece out of covers the entire bottom side of the lamp, and appears to be some sort of rubber material.
View attachment 27157 View attachment 27159

7. Here is the lamp with all of that rubber material carved/cut out. Underneath is the light's circuit board.
View attachment 27161

8. This is after pulling the circuit board out of the plastic housing. The only thing left inside of the housing now is the "lens" that they use.


9. And this is that "lens" that they are using. This lens is actually two separate pieces of plastic. Sandwiched in between the two pieces is some sort of film or something. I suppose this film has the pony image on it which means that out of all the pieces in this lamp, this last piece is what's responsible for shining the distorted pony onto the ground. I would like to say that when I was trying to get the two pieces of the lens apart, I'm almost sure that I damaged that film a bit, so it probably didn't look THAT bad before I took it out.




So that is it. A complete breakdown of the puddle lamps in the '15-'19 Mustangs. Remember that I'm no expert in any field that would involve this thing, so I don't know all the proper names for every component inside. I just simply used the best term I knew to describe everything. Someone smarter than I may be interested in this information, so I thought I'd post it!

 

[Squid]

The discussion over on M6G:

Problem with pony projection light

 

[paul_g]

Great info, great write up!

The old puddle lamp looked like a sheep dog running across the prairie.

Instead of a pony a silhouette of a P51 would have been better.


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[Go Further]

If mine ever starts to look like the one in your first photo, I'll just tell everybody somebody just ran over my Pony... And splat!

 

[BoostedApe]

If mine ever starts to look like the one in your first photo, I'll just tell everybody somebody just ran over my Pony... And splat!

HAH. I feel you. I usually make a joke about it when I'm asked. Especially now that I've got a new one on the passenger side. I tell them it's SUPPOSED to look like that one, but he got smashed

 

[Cristar Attevan]

Sorry to bring back a slightly older thread... but I'm new to the forums and just saw this.

I've been toying with ideas about changing the pony in the puddle lamp to something different-- by changing the film inside. But I guess that would require completely disassembling the lamp like you did, BoostedApe. I suppose it might not matter for your old ones since they weren't working right anyway, but did the disassembly totally destroy the circuit board?

Or does anyone know a way to take these apart to get to the film and then reassemble?

Thank you for any thoughts or ideas!

 

[slojas]

Sorry to bring back a slightly older thread... but I'm new to the forums and just saw this.

I've been toying with ideas about changing the pony in the puddle lamp to something different-- by changing the film inside. But I guess that would require completely disassembling the lamp like you did, BoostedApe. I suppose it might not matter for your old ones since they weren't working right anyway, but did the disassembly totally destroy the circuit board?

Or does anyone know a way to take these apart to get to the film and then reassemble?

Thank you for any thoughts or ideas!

Here is a video showing how to get the mirror off.

Here is a 6g thread involving the mirror assembly itself
Mirror cover removal



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[Cristar Attevan]

Thank you, slojas!

I'm unfortunately not looking to remover the mirror, however-- just take apart the actual lighting module and replace the film of the pony with something else.

 

[slojas]

Thank you, slojas!

I'm unfortunately not looking to remover the mirror, however-- just take apart the actual lighting module and replace the film of the pony with something else.

As I understand it, removal of the entire mirror is necessary to get the lighting module out.

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[slojas]

I found instructions, looks like it can stay.

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[mjknieser]

So I took my runned-over pony puddle light off and attempted to disassemble.

First thing, do NOT attempt to take the clear plastic off. This is glued to the puddle light black housing and is not the source of the problem.

You are correct in that there is a circuit board on the "top" side where the 2-pin electrical connector is located; however, it is SECURELY connected to the black plastic housing with a lot of black RTV like material.

If you want to disassemble... ...what worked for me was to use a dremel tool with the cutting disk to separate the circuit board and lens assembly from the black plastic housing. There is a sweet spot in that you want to dremel a slot below the circuit board; however, above an internal plastic rib. I estimate about 3/16" from the top is where you want to cut. Got lucky and had first pass success. Possibly buy a lottery ticket???

Anyway, once separated, you will find a clear plastic lens assembly that is held on to the circuit board with two plastic thru-hole pins. It easily comes apart. This 2-piece lens assembly forms a sandwich (quarter pounder) where there is a disc (the meat) in the middle that has the pony image.

Examining what I took apart the failure is with the disc with the pony image. I am an electrical engineering; however, it looks like to me that the disc with the image has been melted, burnt or scorched by the heat of the puddle LED itself.

This disc can be easily removed and replaced; however, with what??? It's almost like you want to replace the disc with a piece of laser etched glass where the pony image is in reverse where the parameter of the pony is etched hoping that this will form enough contrast with the un-etched pony image. Guessing... I don't have a laser etcher to experiment with AND this glass disk would have to be really thin to match what is currently installed. The glass disc is thinner than a typical circuit board which is 1/16" thick. There are three thru-hole pins that align the glass disc and, in theory, the plastic lens assembly could accept a thicker disc; however, I don't know how, if at all, this would effect the optics of the plastic lens since, in theory, you are move the two lens further apart.

My conclusion is... ...we are screwed in that we need to buy a new puddle light if you want a correctly formed pony puddle image.

Finally, do NOT go out of your way to perfectly clean the outer clear plastic lens. This, in my opinion and in my experience, is not the issue.

---
Michael

Sorry to bring back a slightly older thread... but I'm new to the forums and just saw this.

I've been toying with ideas about changing the pony in the puddle lamp to something different-- by changing the film inside. But I guess that would require completely disassembling the lamp like you did, BoostedApe. I suppose it might not matter for your old ones since they weren't working right anyway, but did the disassembly totally destroy the circuit board?

Or does anyone know a way to take these apart to get to the film and then reassemble?

Thank you for any thoughts or ideas!

 

[Teegermannstang]

Does anyone know if this would be covered under the 12month bumper to bumper warranty from the dealership?? Also where do you get the part and is there a part number?

 

[zhent]

12 month? factory warranty is 36 month or 36000 miles bumper to bumper, and yes, it should be covered, since it's a defect and "between the bumpers".

 

[SurferBill25]

So I recently got interested in the '15-'19 Mustangs puddle lamps, or the "Pony Lazers". Both of my lamps went bad so I ordered an extra lamp for my passenger side view mirror. I got the passenger side light for around $25, but the driver side light will cost you about double that. (I guess the driver side light sells better?)

Anyway. I couldn't find much information at all online for these puddle lamps. How they work, what exactly it is that makes them go bad, etc. I expect the damage to the lights are due to water, or more specifically, condensation. I completely took apart my broken passenger side lamp and documented the process. Maybe this will give some insight about the inner workings of these things:

(ALL images are fairly large and are able to be zoomed. After clicking on the thumbnail, click "open in a new window" to view enlarged versions!)

1. This is the light from my OLD passenger side puddle lamp. It definitely looks to be damaged by water/condensation.
View attachment 27139

2. This is, of course, the new lamp installed. MUCH better!
View attachment 27145

3. Thiese are images of the OLD puddle lamp. Let's break it down piece by piece.
View attachment 27147 View attachment 27149

4. I saw on another forum that someone was saying they think that rocks are being kicked up during driving and scratching the plastic cover on the light, which in turn causes the distortion. There are definitely scratches on this little plastic cover, but I did test the light again WITHOUT this plastic cover and the scratches you see make absolutely no difference at all. (Second image is the OLD puddle lamp without this plastic cover.)
View attachment 27151 View attachment 27155

5. Just a shot of the puddle lamp without it's clear plastic cover. You start to get a better idea of how it is put together at this point.
View attachment 27153

6. This is the OLD puddle lamp's underside. I simply pried this metal piece off with a flat head screwdriver. The black material that I pried this metal piece out of covers the entire bottom side of the lamp, and appears to be some sort of rubber material.
View attachment 27157 View attachment 27159

7. Here is the lamp with all of that rubber material carved/cut out. Underneath is the light's circuit board.
View attachment 27161

8. This is after pulling the circuit board out of the plastic housing. The only thing left inside of the housing now is the "lens" that they use.
View attachment 27163

9. And this is that "lens" that they are using. This lens is actually two separate pieces of plastic. Sandwiched in between the two pieces is some sort of film or something. I suppose this film has the pony image on it which means that out of all the pieces in this lamp, this last piece is what's responsible for shining the distorted pony onto the ground. I would like to say that when I was trying to get the two pieces of the lens apart, I'm almost sure that I damaged that film a bit, so it probably didn't look THAT bad before I took it out.
View attachment 27165 View attachment 27167 View attachment 27171



So that is it. A complete breakdown of the puddle lamps in the '15-'19 Mustangs. Remember that I'm no expert in any field that would involve this thing, so I don't know all the proper names for every component inside. I just simply used the best term I knew to describe everything. Someone smarter than I may be interested in this information, so I thought I'd post it!

 

[SurferBill25]

Good explanation and diagnosis.

It's been documented on another Mustang forum (TheMustangSource.Com/Forums) that the problem with these lamps is caused by the heat of the lamp itself, not by moisture or anything else, so you are correct.

To respond to someone else's post on this thread, it is not necessary to remove the mirror in order to remove the lamp. At least that is the case with my 2014, and I would guess that the design is the same for the later models. There is simply a small tab at one end of lamp on the underside of the mirror, and that tab merely needs to be depressed with a very small screwdriver or knife blade, and the lamp can then be pulled out and unplugged.

Also, to answer someone else's query, it is well documented in that other forum that this issue is covered under the warranty, if the warranty period has not expired.

Bill