all lights go out

[hwrinkmom]

i have a 1995 presidential town car. it has an intermitent problem with the lights.they go off whenever they feel like it. i turn the headlight switch of, wait a min and turn them back on. they come back on. it used to be only when the high beems were on, now its whenever. can someone help, please.

[Towncar]

Originally Posted by hwrinkmom

i have a 1995 presidential town car. it has an intermitent problem with the lights.they go off whenever they feel like it. i turn the headlight switch of, wait a min and turn them back on. they come back on. it used to be only when the high beems were on, now its whenever. can someone help, please.

Sounds like a wire connection problem at the on/off switch.

Is this a "daytime running lights" DRL vehicle? I see you're in Maine which enhances the possibility (in my mind) of you having a Canadian car with DRL.

History on these cars shows about 50/50 possibilty of headlamp problems. Some of us run forever and some dont. Personally, my swicth gets too hot to touch the actual switch, you can also feel it heating up the dashboard.
But, there is a solution

The reason is this:
Our Town Cars were built with all the headlamp power running through the switch. Because of this, the switch gets really hot and is prone to failure.

To correct this problem:
Ford should have done this at the assy. line but they chose not to.
We need to add a set of power relays to our lighting circuits so that the relays take the load, and the switch takes on a new role of just switching on the relays. Power is taken from the Alternator or Battery, routed through the relay, and sent directly to the light bulbs.

One not so surprising effect:
Our headlights become up to 30% brighter, and still use the recommended light bulbs, Why? All that resistance from the power routing through an overheated switch takes away power to the lamps.

There's an EXCELLENT webpage devoted to this problem and FANTASTIC tutorial on the exact steps and components needed to complete this simple conversion.

Do yourself a favor, correct this Ford cheapie screwup with relays.

As for your current problem, I still suspect a loose wire, or a wire that can lose continuity when it heats up.

If your running DRL's, there may be a seperate problem I'm not aware of

Here's the link to upgrade to relays, look it over -- it gives you some idea of the current wiring w/o relays too.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html

[hwrinkmom]

Originally Posted by Towncar

Sounds like a wire connection problem at the on/off switch.

Is this a "daytime running lights" DRL vehicle? I see you're in Maine which enhances the possibility (in my mind) of you having a Canadian car with DRL.

History on these cars shows about 50/50 possibilty of headlamp problems. Some of us run forever and some dont. Personally, my swicth gets too hot to touch the actual switch, you can also feel it heating up the dashboard.
But, there is a solution

The reason is this:
Our Town Cars were built with all the headlamp power running through the switch. Because of this, the switch gets really hot and is prone to failure.

To correct this problem:
Ford should have done this at the assy. line but they chose not to.
We need to add a set of power relays to our lighting circuits so that the relays take the load, and the switch takes on a new role of just switching on the relays. Power is taken from the Alternator or Battery, routed through the relay, and sent directly to the light bulbs.

One not so surprising effect:
Our headlights become up to 30% brighter, and still use the recommended light bulbs, Why? All that resistance from the power routing through an overheated switch takes away power to the lamps.

There's an EXCELLENT webpage devoted to this problem and FANTASTIC tutorial on the exact steps and components needed to complete this simple conversion.

Do yourself a favor, correct this Ford cheapie screwup with relays.

As for your current problem, I still suspect a loose wire, or a wire that can lose continuity when it heats up.

If your running DRL's, there may be a seperate problem I'm not aware of

Here's the link to upgrade to relays, look it over -- it gives you some idea of the current wiring w/o relays too.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html

thank you, i am not running day lights. it is an on off switch, but it is aiso has a sensor in it to turn them on automaticly when it gets dark. we do not use that function.

i forgot to mention, that all the lights go out. dash, breaks, everything in the car goes black. the only lights that work is the hazards. i dont know if that makes a difference.

[Towncar]

--- i forgot to mention, that all the lights go out. dash, breaks, everything in the car goes black. the only lights that work is the hazards. i dont know if that makes a difference.

Uhhhh -- Yaaaa

Under the hood, on the right-hand (passenger) side, on top of the fender apron, is the Power Distribution Box.

Inside that box is a bunch of master fuses, some breakers, and three master relays.

One of those master fuses powers all the lamps and some other illuminations, it may be loose or defective. Pull it all the way out, inspect the contacts, replace the fuse if there's any doubt of it's worthyness. Sometimes just removing the fuse, and replacing it corrects a bad contact situation. The one in question is a 50-Amp (red) fuse in position "A" as shown in this attachment:

Power Distrubution Box

There are also several fuses in the Fuse Block inside the car, under the drivers side dash that control all the systems you say go off at the same time therefore, I don't see how several fuses inside the car can ALL give intermittant failures at the same time.

Just incase you'd like to doublecheck the Fuse Block, here's that chart:

Fuse Block

[hwrinkmom]

thank you, thank you, thank you, i will do that and get back to you.

[Remnar 87]

It could also be a worn out auto dimmer relay. As the relay is used the metal fatigues and no longer closes and opens properly, so when you turn off your lights, the contacts cool and then work for a while again until they heat up too much and don't work anymore. I had the same problem in my 88 tc, the brights would turn off and on whenever they felt like it.

[Towncar]

It could also be a worn out auto dimmer relay. As the relay is used the metal fatigues and no longer closes and opens properly, so when you turn off your lights, the contacts cool and then work for a while again until they heat up too much and don't work anymore. I had the same problem in my 88 tc, the brights would turn off and on whenever they felt like it.

Very true except you missed one point, the OP says:

i forgot to mention, that all the lights go out. dash, breaks, everything in the car goes black. the only lights that work is the hazards. i dont know if that makes a difference.

[Remnar 87]

Originally Posted by Towncar

Very true except you missed one point, the OP says:

Yeah, I guess I skipped over top of that completely. If that's the case, then I would tend to agree that the master fuse could have bad contacts and bounces around. Was there any mention of the lights going on or off after a bump?

[Towncar]

Was there any mention of the lights going on or off after a bump?

No, the OP didn't mention -- In fact, we're still waiting for the last test result