Hey guys, I hope someone out there can help on this one. I am having trouble with my headlights. So far it seems to be affecting the low beams only. It all started about a week ago, I pulled up to the local Home Depot and my lights were working fine. I turned off the ignition, tilted the steering wheel up and got out. I did my shopping came back and got in the truck. I started the truck backed out and noticed my headlights were not working. I checked the switch and it was on, so I switched to high beams and they worked fine but I couldn't have burnt out both low beam filaments at the same time. I switched back to low beams still nothing. I notice my steering column was tilted up and tilted it down, and my low beams flased on and off. I pulled the tilt lever in and move dthe steering coulmn up and down and my low beams flased on and off. I found a spot in the motion of the coulmn where the headlights would stay on and left it. Obviously there is a short, loose plug, defective module, bad switch or something in the cloumn, just wanting some verification on what was in there. And how to get the column shroud off to access it, and has anyone else had this trouble before? Thanks for any help.


Jeff Hall
Atlanta GA
1998 F150 Lariat Supercab

 

My guess is you have a bad dimmer switch / wipers switch . I've never had excact problem but my wiper switch did go bad and I had to have it replaced., seems it was about 75 bucks for the switch plus 30 or so in labor and because the two are a unit I think that may be your problem.

 

Thank you for your help, I will check out the switch. However it doesn't seem like it is a switch problem. It seems like there is loose/broken wiring or a loose plug connection. Because it seems to make the headlights go out when the column travels up, which would seem to stretch the wiring. But thank you, I will definately check the switch. Can the cover be removed from around the column? If so how. Are there screws or what?

 

The wires to look for in your steering column are a red w/ yellow stripe and a dark blue w/ orange stripe. The red w/ yellow is probably the culprit. It runs from the headlight switch to the multifunction switch and on to the fuse panel.

I got this from my CD I bought on ebay. It's for 2000-01 trucks, so beware the wires might be different for your '98.

 

More then likely, the plastic wire holder (that plugs into the multi function switch), has a broken lock that holds one or two of the wires for your high beam in place.
common problem. PUll the multi function switch out, (for access to the wire plug), and inspect.
Most ford dealers stock that piece, (like I said, it's a common problem).
Good luck,have fun.