lights won’t shut off on ’09 f150

I was trying to find a parking light wire on a 2009 ford f150 and now the head lights and parking lights won't shut off unless you disconnect the battery...doodie! Any ideas, short of taking it to the dealer?

what wires did you probe and try to connect to?

Remove the switch, remove the 3 screws that hold the switch together.  Take the back cover off, remove the circuit board, look for a tiny burnt trace, It may require a magnifying glass to find.  Once you locate it you need to jump it.   If you have an old IDE hard drive cable laying around, one of the conductors will make a great jumper.  Strip a few inches of insulation off of the wire and saturate the wire with solder.  Now apply solder to both ends of the burnt trace, place the jumper across the burnt trace, heat it up and hold in place until it cools.  Cut off the excess wire.   You applied the wrong polarity to the wire you were probing.

I sent 12 volts to the WHITE/ violet wire for like 2 seconds, my bad, it tested positive when the parking lights were on and gnd when off. I am aware of the ground based resistance in the vehicle, but I've never had this issue. thanks for your insight.

had similar problem on new face super duty guess it was 08/09   but yeah solder the switch back and catch the lights in pass kick or under hood at lights   the wire at switch is low current so it will sizzle i repaired the switch and no problems till this day dont remember the color maybe look up the super duty colors for reference                 tnx

This ought to be a sticky...does anyone else feel like they've read about late model Ford trucks and a problematic light switch about 5 times in this forum?

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C Renner's Auto Electronix
My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two

chriswallace187 wrote:

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This ought to be a sticky...does anyone else feel like they've read about late model Ford trucks and a problematic light switch about 5 times in this forum?

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+1

If I get another broken one I will take pictures of the repair process. It really is a simple repair, even for a novice. I do not know if the verbal instructions are too complex, or maybe they believe my screenname and are scared to try the repair, in fear of messing something up. I have given the repair instructions several times but I do not remember if anybody posted back that they had successfully repaired one of the units. I think that at least one of the switches are on Nationwide Backorder for a few months. So you guys better be careful and verify the polarity of the wires before connecting anything to them.

I just learned about this last week, when I burned out a headlight switch on an '09 Econoline doing the same thing.

I didn't have a magnifiying glass, so I didn't try any repair on the switch.......just borrowed a switch from another van on the dealer's lot, and ordered another one.

Three things to add:

1. I don't think you have to worry about the battery. On this van I was working on, I think the lights timed out after about 10 or 20 minutes.

2. You can at least feel better knowing that it's almost definite that you only burned out the switch, and nothing in the electronics of the truck itself.

3. The switch (for the Econoline van, anyway) is fairly cheap (under $35 list), but the bad side is that it's on national backorder, with an estimate or around two weeks to come in.

You younger people will probably not NEED the magnifying glass.  I had to use one to find the problem on the first one I worked on.  It isn't really that small.  Just a little hard to find for us older guys.

Ok, I have it apart, and I see where the board is lifted, I should have brought my camera. It's in between 1 of the pins and a hole in the bread board.

Did you understand the instructions on how to repair it?   The only step I left out was when you strip the insulation off of the wire, twist it as tight as you can.  If you do not twist it, it will tend to unravel and get wide.  It is just easier to manage when twisted.

Is it normally one of the diodes that burs up? Which one is it? I made a jumper to fix what I saw was the problem, and the lights shut off the way they're supposed to and turn on...but the auto lamps don't work, the fog lamps don't work, and the cluster lamps seem dim. Any ideas

Did you pull the circuit board all the way out of the housing.  They have more traces on the other side of the board.  How many wires did you probe?   Just pull it out and look at the other side.

you an also grab the parking light wire at the SJB (Fuse Box) in the passenger side kick panel its in a gray connector pin 6 PURPLE / White its a positive trigger should be the 3rd connector up from the bottom

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If i Can't Install it    I Don't need it   Joe

I am new to the fourm but i am having this same problem with a 09 f150, Ihave read through the discussion on here and have followed all the steps and my lights still will not turn off. Is it possible that I might just need a whole new switch? I repaired the burnt spot and I can't see any other burnt area's on the board but im not sure if I am over looking anything. Thanks for the help

Hi just a simple word of good advice. get a new switch ordered, well I don't feel so bad after reading these replies I had the same problem on new 09 f150 even after I new all the correct information,oops oh well mistakes will be made and beings it's brand new get the new switch for your customer I had mine to the dealer and he has new switch ordered and the customer is ok with that thanks.

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wiringfool eieioztztzt

Mikele, when you jumped the burnt trace, did you use a jumper wire and connect from the component to the left of the open spot to the component to the right of the open spot?   If you just placed solder without a wire, there is a chance you do not have a good connection.  I have only repaired 5 or 6 of these, I have seen 2 burnt traces on a couple of them.  I have yet to see one I could not repair.  The good thing about it is some of them are 30 dollars, depending on fog lights, automatic lights.  The problem is availability.

I would like to thank everybody again for all the helpful post on this fourm. It saved me a ton of hassle of having to return to the dealership and buying a bunch of useless parts. In my last post I didn't think that my problem was fixed but I was wrong. For some reason after soldiering the board and putting the switch back together i realized that the little white circle piece with the contact was not making a good connection to the board, so I had to go back end a bend the contacts out a little so they will make a good connection with the board. After that it was perfect again. I have ordered a new switch so when I receive it I will take my old one back apart and upload some pictures to show exactly what to do to so that it will make it a little easier for the next person who has this problem. Thanks again for all the help, this fourm has now saved me a ton of hassle and headache, I would have never guessed in a million years that it would have been the switch burnt up not letting the headlight turn off.

It's funny that on this vehicle the headlight switch is the only switch protected by one fuse and then the switch is sacrificed,meanwhile the turn signals ,right and left,brake lights,right and left have fuses for each side and relay isolated,I think it's a money maker for the manufactuer!

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wiringfool eieioztztzt

wiringfool wrote:

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Hi just a simple word of good advice. get a new switch ordered,

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The best advice of all the post's in this thread!

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well' I must say that after the first few replays I certainly felt better about my screw up, now I'm convinced that it's a trap that the ford corp. set for this years remote start season. Wait till next year...buy stock in the manufacturer of that freakin' switch. At any rate, I did manage to solder the only burnt trace that I could see, It addressed the problem of the lights not shutting of but the fog, and auto lights still did not work. I ordered the new switch but the guy never came back...guess he didn't shive a git. So, I still have a brand spankin' new headlight switch /w fog and auto lights from the dealer if any one gets desperate...I'll sell it to ya.

Oh by the way, thank you to those who took time out of their schedules to instruct the desperate, and frantic on how to fix this thing...kudos.

had same problem on an 08 fusion, burnt that small trace, switch is cheap enough(around 45.00) and my soldering skills arent that great so i just ordered new switch, on these new fords crazy setup if you unplug switch the s.j.b. turns the lights on and when that trace burns it acts as if switch is unplugged, not a matter of wrong polarity as WHITE/ purple@switch tests as positive pk lites but i believe it has to do with sending power to it without doing something to another wire therefore its resting at ground and burns, you would think it wqould blow a fuse not smoke a switch damn engineers !