disabling a Expedition's lighting

[Left Coast Geek]

any way to disable flashing the parking lights when you open a door at night?

one of my occasional hobbies is amateur astronomy. I generally use the tailgate of my vehicle as a 'desk' for my eyepieces and other equipment. There's typically a dozen or so of us, all setup behind our cars, on a very dark field somewhere remote.... having the vehicle tail and parking lights come on when you open a door is very painful, my last several astro vehicles could be completely darkened


(the 'pink' lights were in fact very deep red, they became pink due to how RBA processed this time exposure to bring out the night sky. as seen from the San Francisco 'sky glow' to the right, this is NOT a very dark site, being only 35 miles south-southeast of the center of San Francisco, nevertheless, the western and southern skies are remarkably dark)

 

[Anthony DeVor]

You should be able to use forscan to enable dark car mode, which if I am correct, does not flash the lights and does not turn the marker lights on when a door is open. However, I could be wrong since I have never used it. Dark car mode however is what is programmed in police interceptors so they can be stealthy getting in and out of their vehicles.

 

[Left Coast Geek]

ok, I'll have to play with that. I have the software, and the USB dongle it requires, I've just not had time to set it up and play with it. I've used Forscan Lite on my phone with my F250 a fair bit but that doesnt' code features.

 

[lobsenza]

There is also a module you can plug into the OBD2 port to do the same thing. I had a friend with an F150 that had the same sissue. He plugs in the modfule when he wants it to be dark.