The Mustang Source - Ford Mustang Forums

You might if there's enough of them. You might if the argument is solid. The only way to find out is get the proper lawyer on it to study or who knows already the case laws and decisions regarding this. Which means money, one way or another. And you might be fighting a losing cause, in which case you'll be the one paying out for the suit on your side. Unless the lawyer for some reason has a "no pay unless win" clause, and most don't.

Investigation might be worth looking into though. Perhaps even your own. The better part of valor might also be to get it fixed, document the fix and costs both monetarily and otherwise (materials, time, methods), and if there's similar suits goin' on, you can join them.

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Tangent story time...

This reminds me of the 'battle' 1993-1996 Gen 1 Mark VIII owners had back when I had a '95 Mark VIII. Worst car... anyway, the big deal was the slimline headlamps they put in that car:
https://www.google.com/search?q=1993...+viii&tbm=isch

To get enough light out of the low beams, they used the same high beam bulbs for all four 'lights': A 9005 bulb. This bulb is a single filament, high wattage incandescent bulb (with various gases and filament designs in them of course). It is a very hot bulb. In a tiny enclosure. Coated with aluminum. Made of thermoplastic.

Do you know how many cars used the same bulbs for both high and low beams? One. This was it. No car before or since has this. That I know of, anyway, and I had researched this issue ad infinitum... but the internet was still fledgling. Perhaps there's another I'm unaware of, but the practice is not done near as I can tell... except for this design choice issue. That ought to tell you the difficulty they had in forcing enough light out of that tiny little box they had to work with and not go with those teeny lil' seal beams like them Chevys what had those.

The low beam was different from the high beam only because they put a little black shield that prevented the light from exiting directly front, and was only reflected from the back and then out the fresnel'd lens. Otherwise, the two bulbs/lamps were the same for all four lamps up front.

Put all that together. Just have a think on all that I just said. Think about the wattage, the small space, the black metal in there...all of it. What is your conclusion of a few years of use, and not all that many?

If you said "that low beam would get cooked!" You'd be right. That's exactly what happened. The upper middle back of the assemblies of the low beam would lose the coating, then blister and turn brown then dark brown... effectively absorbing the light (and heat, which adds more heat in the chamber) and therefore kill whatever headlight lumens you had, as well as turning the temperature of the light towards the red, which is worse again for night time driving.

It was awful.

Lots just put up with it. I tried Silverstars and they helped. Some took apart their assemblies to fix it. Some ordered new ones which were *very* expensive. I wound up doing that, myself, I just couldn't not after it became so bad. Some switched to the ultra rare, very new technology, 1996 Mark VIII LSC HID assemblies, which not only looked completely awesome, but did fix the issue with brighter lights, cooler temperatures, and overall was the right solution.

There was a drawn out discussion, some lawsuits, some NHTSA complaints and investigations, and at the end of it all...

...we 'lost'. Much like the paint flaking off the aluminum hoods of our Mustangs since '04, Ford was not obligated to repair or replace, and did not do anything. I had personally done all this work and time and effort and even did drawings proving the point and... yeah, all that was was for naught, except to fully understand the entirety of the issue, which is not a bad thing... but still. Yeah. That.

Of course, that was the worst car I ever had and not because of the headlamps. What a mess of a car. Too much tech in too new a form. Even the freakin' door handles broke off. :wtf: I was never so glad to have a car taken from me by knifepoint. Take it, buttheads, and thank you so much. Sucks you took my jacket, but I got that back so that was nice.

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Anyway. All that to tell you I've fought that fight. Literally. It's... not fun, and it's not cost effective. But that was headlamps. And while dangerous if they don't work at night, you can just not drive at night (some chose this, truth!) or you could fix it. It's headlamps. Pretty don't enter into it when you get down to it, it's just nice if it was pretty still.

This issue you have is a damage inducing problem that could potentially cause the car to be dangerous if the water gets where it shouldn't, or reduced value if you wanted to sell it. That's worth something more than my scenario. You should at least try to see where it can go. I'm absolutely NOT saying don't do it. I'm saying, be aware, pounds of flesh aren't always worth extracting. Take it into consideration, then do what you need to. Good luck, and hope it gets resolved in a good way for you! :nice:

/I hear you guys/gals maybe asking: Why didn't they put HIDs in in the first place? Technology wasn't ready for prime time until '95 or something. They put them in special models, and the HIDs were expensive to fix and replace. Cobras and Mark VIII got them, and that the time, that was it. LEDs weren't a thing. When either became available as either a hack kit or an actual direct 9005 'replacement' (which it actually wasn't, but whatever), it was controversial (and still is) as the way the filament housings are made takes advantage of the filament's 'arc' shape and location in the housing to work, and how and where the HIDs located and were shaped, much less the LED stuff, would cause glare to other drivers, making your car dangerous at night for them. And that was absolutely illegal. If anyone bothered to check anyway. Some just scofflawed it and did it anyway, good for them.

//Thanks for comin' to my houtex talk. :p