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No lights on dash, doors, and instument but got courtesy

9

96_contour_gl

CEG'er
Joined
Feb 11, 2007
Messages
47
Location
Southern MN
I need some major help here. I recently, somewhere around New Year's, added some fog lights on my 1996 Contour GL. I decided to hook them up to the normal headlight switch so they would shut off when the headlights shut off. But the past week I turned on my headlights with the fog lights and the headlights came on but not the fog lights, instument panel, window switch lights, and everything on the center consoul. I still have courtesy lights and dome lights along with the radio. I checked every fuse in that car and unpluged the fog lights to see if I overloaded the system and blew a circuit but that was to no avail. I need help because as of right now I can't drive at night or else I have to put my cell phone up to the speedometer.:confused:
 
96_contour_gl said:
I need some major help here. I recently, somewhere around New Year's, added some fog lights on my 1996 Contour GL. I decided to hook them up to the normal headlight switch so they would shut off when the headlights shut off. But the past week I turned on my headlights with the fog lights and the headlights came on but not the fog lights, instument panel, window switch lights, and everything on the center consoul. I still have courtesy lights and dome lights along with the radio. I checked every fuse in that car and unpluged the fog lights to see if I overloaded the system and blew a circuit but that was to no avail. I need help because as of right now I can't drive at night or else I have to put my cell phone up to the speedometer.:confused:
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You checked the fuses under the dash and under the hood?
 
Yes every one I found even in the fog light wires that were supplied with the kit. I looked in the manual and it said that if the wires get overloaded a circuit breaker is tripped and once whatever was causing the overload is taken off it should reset itself. I was just wondering maybe that was the problem but I had my lights on for about 20 minutes and nothing happened so I tried turning them on and off a few times but nothing happened. This sux I can't figure it out and niether can my dad.
 
Well I just got done checking all the wiring under the dash after church and all looks good. Do you guys think that I may possibly blew the headlight switch when I added the fog lights? Remember that I only had the regular GL switch w/o the auxilary fog light on it.
 
96_contour_gl said:
Well I just got done checking all the wiring under the dash after church and all looks good. Do you guys think that I may possibly blew the headlight switch when I added the fog lights? Remember that I only had the regular GL switch w/o the auxilary fog light on it.
Click to expand...
Yes..................
 
Look to see if the parking lights are working... if not, then I have a good idea of what is wrong...

See, I had some blue LED license plate bolts that I put on the rear... Well, got pulled over 3 times and the last time the lady made me cut the wires on the spot.

Didn't think much of capping off the wires, but anyhow, few months later, my car started blowing the ignition (IIRC) fuse under the hood. Anything that was tied to the ignition switch would not work.

I ripped just about all the wiring apart on the car in the street in front of my house (after we used my mom's 85 Delta 88 to push it home).

Finally, I, for whatever reason, decided to see if the wiper motor was causing it (was the very last thing I hadn't looked at). Pulled off the driver side cowl cover (the black thing under the wiper arm), and saw a long red wire that was all melted and sticking to the body.

Turns out this was a fusible link for the parking lights, and for reasons unknown to me, they decided to put it in with the wiper motor.

Cut it back in front of where it melted, and all the problems were solved, except that it had no parking lights, dash lights, etc.

Stripped back the wires and put a wire nut on, BAM... the ignition fuse blew again... so now I figured out it was the parking light circuit, so started tracing it out and came up to the trunk area and saw the wires hanging and melted to the trunklid...

Cleaned those off, connected the wires back up under the cowl and I was golden!

Hope it helps :cool:

EDIT: you might not have the exact symptoms since I had a direct short, and you just have an additional load, which might have just burned through the fusible link, where as mine was completely melted and shorting out the circuit, which blew the big fuse ahead of it.
 
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Yeah my parking lights aren't working so I checked all the wiring found no shorts or burned wires so my only conclusion was the switch. I must have tapped into the parking light wire by accident 'cause I wanted the main headlight wire, but good thing I didin't otherwise I couldn't drive at night. Anyways thanks, now I just have to go to the junkyard to get a new one. And another thing, neon lights on the outside, can you have them on if you're just sitting somewhere and not moving or can you get cited for that too. Just wondering because I wanted to put some in my grill and lower grill. I already have some on the inside that light the whole thing up plus as courtesy lights, have to post pics sometime. But thanks for the help with the wiring.
 
If you want to I can get you a wiring guide posted on here if you want, just let me know if you want one and what wiring you need to see...
 
96_contour_gl said:
No thats alright I bought a Haynes manual and that has all the wiring diagrams I need should have done that in the first place.
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You're gonna have fun with that manual and it's wiring diagrams... Reason? It's all off the Mondeo, which had totally different wiring.

I tried to trace the wires in the car with that manual, I was pissed at it after about 5 minutes. Took it back to Autozone and demanded a refund.

Did you look under the cowl yet? A fusible link isn't like a normal fuse. It's just a thin part of the circuit that is designed to burn up. You'll have to cut it off the junkyard car and splice it into your car.

8852DG18.gif

That's just an example of what a fusible link is... I don't even know what it's rated for, but I replaced it with a 10 or 20A fuse and fuse holder from Autozone.
 
Thanks but I am sure if I can't get it my dad or grandpa or someone in my family will. And yeah I noticed the wiring didn't exactly match up with mine that got me to thinking that thats the reason I did something wrong or else it was I wanted to get it done and try them, I get really excited when I put something new on my car.
 
This is where you need to be looking...

This is where you need to be looking...

Here... this is where you need to be looking based on your description of your problem... Also... which wire exactly did you tap into on the headlights to power your fog lights? A picture would be great if you can get one and post, for now though... follow these wiring guides...

Instrument%20Illumination%20Circuit%201.JPG


Instrument%20Illumination%20Circuit%202.JPG
 
yeah well I just put in a new switch and that doesn't seem to be the problem but I don't have any time right now to post a picture but later tonight I'm sure I will. As for the wire pretty sure it was the parking lights wire cause they don't turn on either it was red coming out of the switch on the right side kinda hard to explain so later I will post the pic. I also made the switch glow blue though since I had it out put in a blue replacement bulb and then took the filter off so it isn't green with a screw driver and carving it out of the holes for the light to come through. Won't know how it looks till I get this problem fixed though but if it doesn't look good I got another switch for $2
 
96_contour_gl said:
yeah well I just put in a new switch and that doesn't seem to be the problem but I don't have any time right now to post a picture but later tonight I'm sure I will. As for the wire pretty sure it was the parking lights wire cause they don't turn on either it was red coming out of the switch on the right side kinda hard to explain so later I will post the pic. I also made the switch glow blue though since I had it out put in a blue replacement bulb and then took the filter off so it isn't green with a screw driver and carving it out of the holes for the light to come through. Won't know how it looks till I get this problem fixed though but if it doesn't look good I got another switch for $2
Click to expand...

I can get a picture of that circuit as well if you need it...
 
Well me and my brother and dad just got done looking at it been looking at it since 3 now but all fuses check out again and heres the thing we bypassed the switch completely by running an extension cord from the positive terminal on the battery and connecting it to the parking light wire and everything lit up so the problem is that there isn't any power getting to the switch which means something is wrong farther in the wiring. We called it good for tonight but we will be at it again tomarrow morning if worse comes to worse we bring it to a shop. I don't like the sound of it but if it has to be done then it has to be done. I can see the dollar signs now leaving my pocket and going into their till.
 
Yeah I had the cowling taken off and since I had it off I replaced the cabin air filter the thing was pertineer black. Anywho I will look at all the wiring again today but things are not looking promising.
 
96_contour_gl said:
yeah well I just put in a new switch and that doesn't seem to be the problem but I don't have any time right now to post a picture but later tonight I'm sure I will. As for the wire pretty sure it was the parking lights wire cause they don't turn on either it was red coming out of the switch on the right side kinda hard to explain so later I will post the pic. I also made the switch glow blue though since I had it out put in a blue replacement bulb and then took the filter off so it isn't green with a screw driver and carving it out of the holes for the light to come through. Won't know how it looks till I get this problem fixed though but if it doesn't look good I got another switch for $2
Click to expand...

A new headlight switch?
 
Hey good news I got her done and fixed. It was a fusible link that blew and melted but get this it melted in two seperate spots, crazy, that must have been why I got power back after the first day I experianced problems and then it went out again. The wire was a little farther down than I thought it would be but I pulled it up and seen this big bulge under the tape and knew what had happened, thanks big daddy kane for that and csvt for the diagrams.

Anywho now on to fixin it I just cut the wires apart and cut the bad spots off of the ends of the fusible link then stripped the wire casing and hooked it back up. She glowed like a bute(the instrument gauges that is) and to prevent this from happening again I unhooked the fog lights and ran a wire all the way from my switch to the battery, the way it was meant to be done.

Thanks again Boys couldn't have done it without ya.;) ;) ;)
 
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