Car Help Please

I have posted some car questions on here before, and someone always has the right answer. Last night the light behind the gauges went out on my ’98 Taurus. I went to look into it further and my tail lights don’t work either. I turn the headlights on and they come on, but the gauge backlight and the tail lights do not. I didn’t have fuse tester at home, so I tested every fuse by swapping them out with a new one. A Ford mechanic said he was 99% sure it was a fuse, but I think I have about exhausted that theory. I am thinking it might be a relay, but I don’t know anything about them. Both of the tail lights work when I turn on the four way flashers, but I realize that is a different element. I don’t really have a $100 to drop on a mechanic, so I want to figure this guy out. Any suggestions?

I’d still say it’s a fuse, you can see if the fuse is broken, look at them. I’d guess you have more than one fuse box too, normally there’s one under the hood.

I agree it has to be a fuse. I had this happen on my truck and it was the fuse under the dash. But do check the ones under the hood.

I’m up in the air over this one… the fuse is a possibility, but Ford has a thing with many of the 90’s passenger cars when a tail light/brake light fuse blows, the car wont shift out of park.

With that said, it very well could be a bad headlight switch, or poor connection somewhere. My guess is that switch probably isnt that cheap.. if you cant locate the problem yourself, going to the shop and paying for the hour labor might be a bargain compared to starting to blindly install electrical parts that may, or may not fix your problem.. electrical parts cant be returned.

Do you have a multimeter ? I assume not since you can test fuses with a digital multimeter. My suggestion would be to purchase a digital multimeter with continuity testing cabability. I purchased mine for $35.00. Comes in handy for ALL kinds of things. If you’ve looked at each fuse & cannot see a break in any of them, I would verify voltage at the fuse block, then branch out to the wiring harness.

You can also post at this site too. http://trustmymechanic.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

I’d put my money on the headlamp switch and connector. Ford had a recall on some models in that year range for that concern. The connector to the switch makes poor contact causing heat that melts the two into a useless glob. The switch is kinda weird to remover too as the twisting action of the knob is employed to trigger the removal. Get your VIN number and call a Ford dealer. Or send it to me and I’ll check on it for you.

Thanks guys. I have gone through every fuse under the hood and under the dash. I visually inspected every one and swapped a new one with each old one. You guys are right on that I need to get a tester. I really don’t believe it is a switch either. I think I might have to swallow my pride and fork out the money. It is pretty hard to stay off the streets after dark.

One of my cars is an older camry. Mostly drive during the day. I started noticing everyone was riding my butt when I went to make a turn or slow down. I also had to push the shift overide button to get out of park. I really don’t know if my dash lights worked or not. The problem was a breaklight switch, just under the break peddle. Had power going in, but not coming out. It also blew out the bulbs. Replaced switch and bulbs and everythings o.k. now. Shifts too. Not sure it’s your problem, but if your fuses are all o.k., it might be a switch.