high beam dash light stays on..... no brights | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

high beam dash light stays on..... no brights

Lafferty

Member
Joined
June 2, 2012
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
City, State
Rhode Island
Year, Model & Trim Level
'93 Explorer
Hey guys, just trying to tickle the collective mind here. I have a problem, on my 93 Explorer XLT my high beam dash indicator stays on when the headlights are on. The "low beams" seem fine but the "high beams" are extremely dim. The fogs work great. They are on their own independent switch. Everything works good except the high beams are dim and the indicator light stays on all the time. I know other people have posted about this but all of those threads went dead before they found a definite solution. I think it may be the MFS on my steering column but that part is around 130 bucks and I don't have that kind of cash right now. However I'd like to know if that would solve my problem. Any help would be appreciated. Sincerely, Matt
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Multifunction switch is a lot cheaper from a junkyard. Fixed a turn signal issue I had with a junkyard switch.

Has the wiring for the lights ever been modified, like a HID installation that may have been subsequently removed? Improper wiring or even proper wiring with use of relays can sometimes confuse the flash-to-pass module and I had issues with the high beams sticking on, and sometimes not switching.
 






Funny that you should mention it, There are some odd wires just hanging around in the engine compartment but they appear as if they were added for an audio system, i already removed the subwoofer and amp wires that were not installed neatly. However they don't appear to be wired into anything important. Sorry got a little off topic there lmao. When I said Funny you should mention it, I was thinking of my green HID's. My only issue with that is that they are plug and play kits. And they don't have a high beam feature. Sincerely, Matt
 






So you do have HIDs? Might be the cause. The flash to pass module seems to get confused if it doesn't experience a normal amp draw on the stock headlight wiring circuit. Guess I should clarify what I was talking about and why it might apply to you.

Couple years ago I tried the 9007 upgrade mod, replacing the stock 9004s. At the same time I replaced my headlight switch because it was old - the draw of even the stock lights was making the switch overheat and fail, which caused my lights to cut out at the worst times.

The 9007 bulbs draw more current than stock 9004s, so I figured I would wire it up myself. I used the stock headlight wiring and connectors to only control a pair of relays, one for high beams and one for low beams. The relays channeled power directly from the battery to new high temp headlight connectors. The only load that the stock headlight switch and wiring experienced was that of switching the relays on. The relays handled all the current of the actual bulbs. I would imagine that many HID setups work exactly the same way!

For a few weeks it worked fine for me. Then I began to notice odd behavior. The high beams would stay on sometimes, and I would sometimes see the high beam indicator dimly lit on the dash. I don't remember what other symptoms were. I do excellent wiring so I know it wasn't my fault, and the relays tested good.

I double checked everything against wiring diagrams, and what I gathered from this was the above conclusion; that the flash to pass module did not like my setup. Returning to stock fixed everything immediately.

If your HID setup uses the stock headlight wiring to activate it, you probably are having the same problem. I don't know for sure a solution for that. Perhaps putting a couple resistors on the stock headlight circuits would make the FTP module happy because it would "see" the current draw of stock lights.

Just a thought. I could be totally wrong, or I could be onto something here :D
 






Sounds like that may have been a problem. I am curious to find out if that would also affect the plug and play versions of HID's. I'll tell you everything I know about my problem, since I took out my HID's.

With HID's:
No Hi Beams or flash, only normal low beams
No high beam dash light except for when i try to turn the high beams on or flash
High beam dash light turns off when i return to normal low beams
A headlight will occasionally turn off and stay off for a while when playing with the lights

Without HID's:
High beam dash light whenever the normal headlights are on
High beams extremely dim
Low beams, about normal intensity
Flash dims the lights for a second until low beams are restored
Dash light for high beams does not turn of with normal bulbs in


What I know about my lights:
The HID's appear to be a simple plug and play model that uses the existing wiring up until the headlight bulb plug. In which case the model plugs into the existing plug and seems to route the power through some sort of metal box which seems to be a relay of some sort. (I am an electrical student so I sorta know what im doing, I just have no experience with automotive electrical systems.) I do know there are aftermarket fog lights installed on top of my front bumper and routed to a separate switch down by the hood release. But those lights do not seem to affect the high beam indicator dash light at all. I will take another look today to see if I an find anything else about my system out, if the girlfriend lets me get away. Thank you Arco, you've been a great help, most people don't seem to care to even use five minutes of their time to help out a fellow Explorer Enthusiast. I'll get bak to you with more info when i get it later. Sinerely, Matt
 






Back
Top