Parking, fog, & instruments cluster lights quit simultaneously

[Drw0392]

My fog lights, parking lights, and instrument cluster lights all stopped working at once. I referred to the fuse diagram in my owners manual and then checked the involved fuses. All of the fuses appeared to be in working order. As unlikely as it would be that all of those bulbs stopped working at the same time; to be thorough I checked the bulbs. Again, all of the bulbs appear to be in working order. About the time that this happened I had just installed flush mount LED work lights in the rear bumper. I ran a relay and an inline fuse, as I do with all accessory lighting. The lights worked, however seemed much dimmer than they should have been. I suspected a bad ground, and grounded them directly to the rear bumper (originally, I grounded them to the trailer light harness' ground wire). After grounding the lights to the bumper, they became much brighter. Job done, or so I thought. The next day I noticed the lack of fog, parking, and instrument cluster lights, additionally the LED work lights which had worked the night before no longer work. I highly suspect that the two events are related. My headlights (hi and low) both work, as well as my reverse, brake, turn/hazard lights work. ALL of the lights in my truck are LED, and prior to installing the bumper lights functioned properly.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Drw0392]

In case I forgot to mention, my truck is a 1999 Xcab 4x4 XLT w/ 4.0/AT and I do have keyless entry. RonD suggested I check fuse 11 (which was good) and the "park light relay". I looked under the dash and hood (as suggested by RonD) however had no luck locating it.

Does anyone know where the "park light relay" is located in my truck? Thanks for any help y'all can provide!

 

[ericbphoto]

Is there any way you can post a wiring diagram showing how you connected the new lights and relay? It sounds like this change may be related to your issue. But without knowing exactly what you connected where, it is difficult to troubleshoot remotely.

It sounds like you may have inadvertently shorted out part of the “fog, parking, instrument lights” circuit or created a voltage dividing network that reduced the voltage going to those lights.

 

[Drw0392]

I'll draw one up and post it, stay tuned...

(Thank you)

 

[Drw0392]

I, or more accurately my significant other fixed the problem. She was convinced that it was a bad fuse, despite all of the fuses appearing to be intact. So, she ordered replacements, and we replaced every fuse (both under the hood and in the fuse block). Wouldn't you know it, she was right. I begrudgingly admitted defeat and ate some crow. But on the up-side, the Ranger is in tip-top shape again!