Headlights will not come on

[carsz1976]

i was driving home and i had the high beams on. half way home down a dark dirt rd the lights stoped working all together. the dash said that my high beams were on but nothing. i shut them off and on and nothing. all i have are marker lights and fog lights, and its a 98 x so you have to have the head lights on for the fog lights to work. any ideas on whats wrong?

 

[BrianDye]

Hm...theres that .01% chance that possibly your headlights both died at the same time haha. But do you have the Auto-Lamp buttons on your mirror? Try unplugging the connector on the back of the mirror, for like 10-15 mins

 

[2000StreetRod]

Fuses & relays

. . . the dash said that my high beams were on but nothing. i shut them off and on and nothing. all i have are marker lights and fog lights, and its a 98 x so you have to have the head lights on for the fog lights to work. any ideas on whats wrong?

Do you have Autolamps or Daytime Running Lamps? Do you have low beams? What happens when you activate Flash-To-Pass? According to the 1996 wiring diagram, if you don't have Daytime Running Lamps and the Hi Beam indicator illuminates then you should have power to the left and right headlamps. The right headlamp has a different ground than the left headlamp so that should not be the problem.

I'm guessing that you have DRL. If so, check Interior Fuse Panel fuse #26.

 

[carsz1976]

i have autolamps but NO daytime lamps. i replaced both bulbs about a month ago. when i pull the flash to pass i get nothing, when i put the high beams i get nothing, even when its suppost to be regular low beams there is nothing, but the high beam light on the dash is lit up.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

take a look behind your headlight switch. there might be a possibility that the plug going into your headlight switch fried and melted some of the wireing. i it happened, you should visibly see it.

 

[Turdle]

Check the fuses

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180814&highlight=fuse+panel

There are several tied to the headlight circuit. Some are under the hood.

 

[Bill Kemp]

See post #5 in teh Lighting forum FAQs for Lamp Out Module.http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28683

 

[2000StreetRod]

Replace fuse

i have autolamps but NO daytime lamps. i replaced both bulbs about a month ago. when i pull the flash to pass i get nothing, when i put the high beams i get nothing, even when its suppost to be regular low beams there is nothing, but the high beam light on the dash is lit up.

According to the 96 wiring diagram for autolamps if there is voltage to the High Beam Indicator there should be voltage to the left and right high beam section of the headlamps. Do you have the lamp out warning module? If so, could you be confusing the warning indicator with the high beam indicator? If not, the only thing I can think of is there is a high resistance path in the circuit that passes enough current for the high beam indicator to illuminate but not enough to light either of the headlamps. The only fuse that impacts the high beams and the low beams but not the parking lights is the Main Light Switch and Multifunction Switch fuse in the power distribution box under the hood. It's #11 on the 96 diagram but #12 on my 2000 Sport. Try replacing that fuse.

 

[carsz1976]

no the high bean indicator on the dash is lit up, but there are no high or low beams. i do not have a lamp out indicator b/c 2 years ago i had a bulb that burned out but i never had anything telling me it was out. i unpluged the autolamps and it did nothing. i checked all the fuses with a voltage meter and they are all normal. all that happens is when the lights are on, only the marker lights are on and the fog lights. no headlights what so ever. oh and 98's are wired totally differently from the 95-97's and 99-01's. i had a 97 mountaineer and a 01 x and they were different.

 

[Bill Kemp]

If you have the display computer in the console you have a LOM.

 

[carsz1976]

what is LOM? and yea it has the computer its an Eddie Bauer

 

[budwich]

Your loss of lows is a LOM problem. Your loss of highs is likely a bulb problem. You can't just unplug the LOM and expect your lights (lows) to work as the circuit goes thru the module... you have to either fix it / replace it and bypass it. Tons of posts with people having success with all the options.