Head Light Wiring
 

I installed new head lights (stock replacement from LRS) and now my high beams only work on the passenger side.

With the head lights on:

If I pull the lever back (spring loaded), low beams will stay on and the passenger secondary will illuminate also.

If I push the lever foward (locked), both low beams turn off and the passenger secondary illuminates.

This car was originally a slick top unit, so I'm assuming it had wig wag head lights. I'm also assuming the department did the fancy wiring work. Has anybody re-wired their lights? Or had this problem?

Driver side

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/w...cal/photo1.jpg

Passenger side

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/w...l/photo2-1.jpg

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/w...l/photo3-3.jpg

Have you tried swapping the bulbs to make sure the DS bulb wasn't damaged during the swap?

Check the bulbs yes but that sounds like the grounds are switched or off on one of the bulbs. If a wig-wag was installed by splice, that means that the control module mounting area is where the splice was done. If there was extra wire spliced in, check the surrounding wire harness area for the factory wires for the highbeam and simply reinstall them. To be sure, take a multi meter and see if you get power from any of the extra wires in the harness area and check for any differences in power too as there might just be a short in the splices too causing a low power problem to the one side when you set the high beams. That blue splice that you have is not going to work as each of the sides have to have power and ground separately. The splice looks to be where the control module went.

What year is that car? Might need to double check the wiring harness diagram for that car so that you might be able to find that wire by color (it's available in Ford's service DVD's or have a Ford parts guy generate a wiring harness diagram).

This is a common problem in the CVPI's as any spliced in wig-wag control module also takes the command from the power coming from the headlight control switch to override some of it's functions when the power comes on and most shops wire the highbeams to the wig-wag module by eliminating the necessary wire from the factory harness for one side of the car.

Good luck with that as it really is a hassle figuring out those splices at times!

Dammit! I just had everything out to clean the connections and take pics, but that didn't cross my mind! I only inspected the filaments (which appear to be ok), but I will have to try that tomorrow.

Thank you! Yes, there are 2 wires cut and left bare. At first, I thought it would be cool if the wig wags still worked, but now I just want to wire things up like factory. I found this diagram. Let the testing begin........tomorrow.

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/w...ights-Horn.gif

Leave it to the engineers! (sorry, couldn't help it)

Griswald,

That wiring hack job in your pics needs to be redone, but I was asking just in case it was the easiest fix (bulb).

GSPI has you covered on the more difficult aspects. ;)

BTW, the diagram you posted is for those wishing to rewire the fogs on their GTs, since Ford screwed them up and they get hot and tend to flash.

These are common problems with custom emergency vehicle installations even today. Ford has come up with factory (Crown services up in Canada to start and the Leer for the new Interceptor) police emergency lighting systems so that there is little or no splicing done anymore. The power that some of these lights use can cause electrical overheating so the factory setups are being used more often.

As an aside, some of the wig-wag control manufacturers currently have better designs for more of the plug-n-play type of install not the dreaded "splice"!

Good luck with your troubleshooting tomorrow!

Very true. Believe it or not, I've done the installs on my last 3 Crown Vics ('02, '05, '09). I was VERY thankful for Crown's jumper for the headlight harness up front....at least until my '09. They changed out the plug, removed the jumper, and I have no wig-wags on it. Before that, it was plug and play. I'm sure it still is with the new plug, I've just never taken the time to research it. My last marked car ('04) had the factory Ford flasher from Crown already in it.

Just in those year models you posted, there has been major changes in the suppliers for these harnesses where there were two different suppliers for those systems (although Crown was the main installer for Ford) switched twice so I'm thinking the 09 now has the LEER system in it and the wig-wag control might be in one of the auxiliary power control boxes.

It could be LEER, just have to check the manual. I'm not concerned about the power control, since I run LEDs in the grill and had to run +12VDC up front anyway. The "new" plug is funky, and needs a matched male to go into it. The old ones came from the factory with a matched male w/jumper to itself already plugged in. The new ones come with a "dust cover". Why they couldn't leave well enough alone is beyond me. :) On both of my old ones, it was as easy as plugging in whatever aftermarket flasher to Ford's plug (after cutting and connecting the plug/jumper) and screwing down the unit. +12VDC and good to go.