Not your typical headlight switch question. | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Not your typical headlight switch question.

johnnyfireball

New Member
Joined
March 11, 2015
Messages
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City, State
Dunkirk, MD
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Ford Explorer XLS
I have a 2000 Explorer. a few months ago my dash lights and tail lights went out, so i searched the forum and found i needed to switch the headlight switch, and that fixed it.

now here i am again, same lights go out and i think all i need to do is swap out the switch. wrong. no luck.

i noticed some of the wires were kind of burnt so i had my father (i have no idea how to work with wires, he does) take a look. he tested some of the wires and found a few weren't working so he repaired them. my lights all worked for about 2 weeks until they went out again. now they come on randomly every now and then. my power windows also stopped working.

my question is, is there anything i could buy and replace that would fix this besides jus the headlight switch? why are my windows out? (not a fuse, all my fuses are good.) and what causes my lights to keep going out?

i am not a mechanic so please try to explain as simple as possible. any help would be greatly appreciated. this problem is preventing me from driving when its dark and is affecting my work schedule.

thanks!
 






If wires were kind of burnt (I assume you mean the plastic was melted?) you may have a short somewhere, it could be intermittent and caused by stuff shifting around while you drive.

Which wires were melted? (Colors and which connector they go to would help, take pics if you're not sure) Take another look at them and see if they melted again.

You could also pull the fuse for that circuit and put a multimeter in amp meter mode across the fuse (Make sure the meter is rated for the same or higher current than the fuse and DO NOT do this if the fuse is blowing) and check for any abnormal power usage.
 






not sure about the wires...but with headlights/tailights/etc going out, did you check the alternator? My Ex started shutting things off and left me sit a week after i SHOULD have tested the alternator when these things started happening
 






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