1998 Taurus

Son's 1998 Taurus started having some strange light problems. The dash lights and the tail lights both stopped working at the same time. Bulbs and fuses are OK, and there doesn't seem to be a common relay for those two circuits, so I was wondering if this car has a "Body Control Module" or something like that. I had a Chrysler minivan that had similar problems and I finally traced the problem to a "computer" behind the kick panel beside the gas pedal. There was a burned connection in a multi-wire connector, and it was causing odd electrical and light problems. I've tried looking in the various manuals for something like that in the Taurus with no luck. Clues?

Chuck

Chuck, on these newer cars, I have no idea how they're wired, but if it were an older car, it would sound simple; a fuse. They used to all be wired and fused in such a manner that the taillights and dash lights were on the same circuit, so you'd know your taillights were out if the dash lights weren't working. But if your bulbs and fuses are OK. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Awhile back, one taillight went out on our minivan. Simple, right? Just need a bulb. So I took the bulb out, but before going to buy another one, I got my multimeter and checked continuity through both filaments. Bulb checked OK, so instead of going after a bulb, I went to the dealer. Sure enough, just a bulb. How can that filament have continuity through it and not work? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Bird,

I had forgotten that old standard. I don't think newer cars are wired that way, but it sure made sense at the time. I'm thinking now that the problem may be in the headlight switch, since the fuses and bulbs are OK. On the other hand, I'll tell him to double check both just in case. For that matter, I've solved any number of electrical problems just by pulling and reinserting things.

Chuck

Bird, Sometimes the coiled up filament, although broken, is long enough for the ends to touch, voila, continuity but when you turn the bulb and jar it at all the contact is lost.

A trick I learned to employ BECAUSE IT WORKS is to make contact on the bulb with your ohm eater and while maintaining contact thump the bulb a bit while looking at it. If it is broken the filament is free to vibrate in a larger arc and may or may not make contact after the oscillation dies down. The ohm eater can show the ckt go open but when the parts of the filament touch when not disturbed you can miss the indication with the meter only.

You can charge up a capacitor and thump a connected bulb with a broken filament. When the filament parts touch the cap discharges through the filament and sometimes welds it back together (for a little while.) Once upon a time this was done to "resurrect" picture tubes. Lots of things were done to resurrect picture tubes in the 60's that are not mainstream practice now. Isolation brighteners and such. Capacitive discharge welding of broken filaments was just another of those tricks.

But seriously, sometimes a filament will break from prolonged vibration when the lamp is turned off and it will touch part of the time, hence the thump test.

Once upon a time a long time ago in a community far far away I ran a small electronic repair operation. I handled the audio gear and my two buddies did most of the in-depth TV stuff. I had a letter of permission from the USAF base commander to operate out of my Government supplied house on the air base. Ahh the days of tubes... Yeah we had transistors too but still lots of tubes.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat, every time I think, or hear, of TV tubes, it reminds me of a couple of things. For one thing, 7-11 stores had tube testers and I've actually used theirs and fixed my own TV at least once. The other thing is that I was a Burglary and Theft Detective Sergeant in 1969. One day a lady called to tell me there was a house in her neighborhood that she thought was occupied by a burglar. The reason she thought that was because she saw the guy frequently carrying TVs from his unmarked van into the house, sometimes carrying TVs back out to the van, and frequently TVs set out at the curb for the garbage men. To make a long story shorter, after doing a little investigating, I found that the guy ran an ad continuously in the TV Guide section of the newspaper, advertising TV repairs in your home. His ad only had a phone number, no company name, no address. He had one of the cheap little tube testers and a supply of tubes in the van. He knew no more about TV repair than I do, but he would come to your house, check the tubes with his little tester, and if he wasn't able to fix it that way, he'd tell you it would have to go into the shop to be fixed, and if you agreed, he would simply take it to a TV repair shop, get it fixed, return it, and charge whatever he had paid to get it fixed plus a little for himself. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] So, without one iota of technical knowledge, he was making a living as a TV repairman; maybe not too honest, but nothing illegal.

Bird, I don't think he was unique. There were lots of TV "repairmen" who were tube changers. In more legitimate shops if changing tubes in someone's home didn't fix a set they'd have to take it to the shop where an honest to goodness TV tech (bench tech) would actually t-shoot and repair the set using test generators, scopes, and all that techie stuff. A good bench tech made a very good rate of pay and could handle the traffic brought in by a small fleet of tube swappers.

I was never an expert TV repair guy but was pretty good with radios and audio gear. Scarry thought... I have a commercial FCC lisc and am legal to adjust transmitting equipment AND I have a ships RADAR endorsement. Pity the poor navigator who couldn't find a more qualified RADAR guy than me. I never set out to do anything with RADAR but when I tool the Commercial Lisc exam the FCC lady said everyone else takes the RADAR supplemental rest so I took it and now I R 1.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I can remember when many stores had valve testers and sold valves to those who were attempting to fix a TV. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon it was a good news bad news situation. The good news was that most often the problem with a TV was a worn out Fleming valve which could be replace by just about anybody. The bad news was that you had to do it a lot.

Kind of like British boating gear a few decades back. The good news was that just about anybody cold fix it with simple tools but the bad news was you had to do it a lot.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]