Diode Dynamics C1R hitch light help

Would love some help from anyone else that has installed one of these diode dynamic C1R hitch lights. I came across a few posts on here that said they were installed with no issues, loved the idea, so I decided to order one. However my ST goes bonkers with trailer messages every time I hit the brakes.

Just curious from other ST owners that may have this installed if I am missing something, did something wrong or if this is something to return. It does appear to work correct and looks great but car just goes crazy with notifications. Trailer connected, disconnected, trailer light errors.

I have one on my 23 ST and have no issues. Works perfect. Have you tried to contact DD about this? They may have sent you the wrong wiring harness.


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I did not. I actually ordered from lethal performance so I could use PayPal and diode themselves were showing back order at the time. Little did I know it was gonna wait and ship from diode anyway. Prior I had messaged another forum member that I seen posted they had no problem, to ask which car he ordered for since they have ones labeled for different year F150 and Broncos but no Explorer. He sent me the model number he got and that’s what I searched for and ordered. Did you order one for a specific ford model?

I will reach out to them tomorrow and hopefully I just need a different harness even if it ends up costing me a little more in the end. It is weird, I had to go to dinner right after which is when I seen the issue but when I left dinner not a single notification on the way to the ice cream shop but then just got one or 2 sporadic notifications on the way home from there. It went from every brake press to none then random lol. I checked to make sure nothing was loose.

Figured I’d ask here to see if maybe I was supposed to do something else and wondered if they would just say it isn’t for the explorer just the F150 and Bronco or something. Could be a bad harness to I suppose, maybe. I will see what they say, thank you!!

I remember there were issues early on. I have the C1 and it works perfectly.

https://www.explorerst.org/threads/...our-explorer-st-today.889/page-138#post-98014

Little did I know it was gonna wait and ship from diode anyway.

I dont even see it as an option on DiodeDynamics Site for the Explorer. Is this because of issues it causes?

Or because the explorer doesnt come with a 7 pin trailer connection, so it required modification to the harness. According to the site.

I dont even see it as an option on DiodeDynamics Site for the Explorer. Is this because of issues it causes?

Or because the explorer doesnt come with a 7 pin trailer connection, so it required modification to the harness. According to the site.

My explorer came with a 7 pin connection. I used the wiring harness from my 23 Dodge Durango and I don’t have any issues at all with the light.


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Just got off the phone with them. Unfortunately they cannot guarantee anything for the explorer simply because they have not had any in for testing. He felt I would only need to use the addition t tap wire to eliminate my issue but I didn’t wanna go through that trouble to find out it didn’t work plus my box was missing the actual t tap so I’d have to run and get one. Decided to order a special order cord harness they offer. The harness is essentially the same harness but instead using the t tap it has 4 different plug in inline options but would still require removing both taillights, seeing which of the 4 are the same plug as ours, hook up one inline on one taillight, run the rest down underneath and over to do the same on the other taillight then plug into the same 7 pin harness that came with. He said if it doesn’t work I can always return no problem.

I even admitted I jumped the gun and cut the tabs off my sleeve for my lock pin before testing anything so I’m not sure I can return the light. He is sending me out a replacement sleeve no cost in case I wanna return everything. I don’t know lethal performance return policy but if I cannot return for any reason diode will take it back and give me store credit for it worst case. Very cool of them.

I did ask if it is possible my harness is faulty and he said sure. So game plan is to start with the standard harness in the new one being sent. If that works I can return the faulty one with the additional pieces from the new one for a full refund. That would be best case, if not then I can try the additional pieces or t tap wire or give up and return it all before I run out of the time to do that.

Glad DD is helping you out. Be careful using T-taps, they will cause all sorts of issues after a while with water corrosion.


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That is exactly why I ordered this harness. It goes inline just like the main harness but to the taillights. Still have to run the wires though which may be a bigger pain than I will want to deal with especially since it has to go to both but definitely won’t be using the t tap. I’m really hoping the harness was faulty and swapping that will be all that’s needed if not I will see how easy or hard running those wires appears to be.


This is the video for that particular harness install. Hoping I don’t need that. Would have to get the taillights off and rig it up to make sure that’s a solution before running anything. Don’t remember what it looks like behind the taillight when I did the led bulb swap as far and running the harness down.