Informative posts on this board have recently helped me to perform an easy fix on my 1997 Eddie Bauer.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I thought that the driver's side low beam headlight filament had burned out, because the low beam light would not come on and the message center gave us the "CHECK HEAD LAMPS" message. So I dutifully went to Advance Auto Parts and bought a new set of headlights, and proceeded to replace the current bulbs with the new ones. Only, the new driver's side bulb didn't correct the problem! After switching the positions of the bulbs, however, I was able to verify that neither the new nor the old bulbs had actaully been burned out--instead, it was as if the driver's side headlight was simply not getting power in the low beam mode.
After doing a search on this forum and the 1995-2001 Explorer forums and looking at a number of posts dealing with the "Lamps Out Module" or the LOM--many of which had been posted by other 1997 Eddie Bauer owners--I quickly suspected that my LOM was malfunctioning. Sure enough, after looking at it, I noticed that one of the solders where the female end of the wiring harness pins were connected to the LOM circuit board had fractured. I took out the soldering iron and re-soldered that pin to the circuit board, re-installed the LOM in its protective casing, re-connected the message center computer and reassembled the center console, and the driver's side low beam worked again!!
Very quick fix, and very easy to do as long as the re-soldering is carried out carefully. Total time to fix was less than 30 minutes. Anyone else having this problem with their 1995-2001 Explorers, just search the Forums for posts dealing with "LOM" or "Lamp Out Module" and you'll find plenty of info on how to get at the LOM and how to fix it.
Just thought I'd share the good results. Thanks to all those other second gen Explorer owners who posted about this problem and how to fix it!
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I thought that the driver's side low beam headlight filament had burned out, because the low beam light would not come on and the message center gave us the "CHECK HEAD LAMPS" message. So I dutifully went to Advance Auto Parts and bought a new set of headlights, and proceeded to replace the current bulbs with the new ones. Only, the new driver's side bulb didn't correct the problem! After switching the positions of the bulbs, however, I was able to verify that neither the new nor the old bulbs had actaully been burned out--instead, it was as if the driver's side headlight was simply not getting power in the low beam mode.
After doing a search on this forum and the 1995-2001 Explorer forums and looking at a number of posts dealing with the "Lamps Out Module" or the LOM--many of which had been posted by other 1997 Eddie Bauer owners--I quickly suspected that my LOM was malfunctioning. Sure enough, after looking at it, I noticed that one of the solders where the female end of the wiring harness pins were connected to the LOM circuit board had fractured. I took out the soldering iron and re-soldered that pin to the circuit board, re-installed the LOM in its protective casing, re-connected the message center computer and reassembled the center console, and the driver's side low beam worked again!!
Very quick fix, and very easy to do as long as the re-soldering is carried out carefully. Total time to fix was less than 30 minutes. Anyone else having this problem with their 1995-2001 Explorers, just search the Forums for posts dealing with "LOM" or "Lamp Out Module" and you'll find plenty of info on how to get at the LOM and how to fix it.
Just thought I'd share the good results. Thanks to all those other second gen Explorer owners who posted about this problem and how to fix it!
