Why did ford not put a under hood light on my 02 ranger fx4 off road ?

[Curious Hound]

As a thought maybe LED strips across the hood with the jam switch would work better and give plenty of light to be useful.

I saw some of those on Amazon yesterday. $20 or less and it also had a manual rocker switch in addition to the fender lip plunger thingy switch. Those strips would probably light things up nicely.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

My 93 has one that works as it is intended to but it is so dim with the incandescent bulb in it that it is really useless unless I hold what I need to see up to it. Great Idea but disappoints in practice.

I have seen some systems that had a switch similar to a door jam switch to turn it on and off attached to the fender lip so the hood pushed it to turn it off.

As a thought maybe LED strips across the hood with the jam switch would work better and give plenty of light to be useful.

As bulbs age they can lose brightness.

I know first gen trucks grounded thru the hood and had a little ground strap connecting the hood to the cowl to help with grounding, it may also be a ground issue also if they kept doing that into the third gens.

 

[Bgunner]

As bulbs age they can lose brightness.

I know first gen trucks grounded thru the hood and had a little ground strap connecting the hood to the cowl to help with grounding, it may also be a ground issue also if they kept doing that into the third gens.

Mine is a two wire set up. Assuming one power and the other is ground. I don't have a ground strap on the hood on my 94 which makes me think the second wire is the ground for the bulb.

 

[Curious Hound]

Mine is a two wire set up. Assuming one power and the other is ground. I don't have a ground strap on the hood on my 94 which makes me think the second wire is the ground for the bulb.

Good assumption.

 

[00t444e]

.....they are supposed to shut off when you close the hood

Obviously, but I sometimes have my vehicles in the garage with the hood open for a long period of time.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Obviously, but I sometimes have my vehicles in the garage with the hood open for a long period of time.

Ah ok

 

[Curious Hound]

Obviously, but I sometimes have my vehicles in the garage with the hood open for a long period of time.

That, unfortunately, falls under the category of operator error.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

My 2011 doesn't have one and apparently never did. There's no evidence of anything missing. Those of you who have one in your Ranger, where is it mounted?

There was an optional lighting group that gave you the cargo lights around the center brake light. Mine doesn't have it, but I've also noticed that none of the last few model years of Ranger seem to have cargo lights, only the solid red center brake light. My guess is that underdash lights (to light the footwells) and an underhood light would also have been part of the lighting group.

My father's 1992 Chevrolet Silverado had an underhood light, mounted just forward of the passenger-side front wheel at the inner edge of the fender, but the bulb had been removed. Given that truck's electrical problems, I wonder why.

 

[Curious Hound]

My 2011 doesn't have one and apparently never did. There's no evidence of anything missing. Those of you who have one in your Ranger, where is it mounted?

There was an optional lighting group that gave you the cargo lights around the center brake light. Mine doesn't have it, but I've also noticed that none of the last few model years of Ranger seem to have cargo lights, only the solid red center brake light. My guess is that underdash lights (to light the footwells) and an underhood light would also have been part of the lighting group.

My father's 1992 Chevrolet Silverado had an underhood light, mounted just forward of the passenger-side front wheel at the inner edge of the fender, but the bulb had been removed. Given that truck's electrical problems, I wonder why.

On my '93, it's right here. Roughly the same place on an '02 Superduty.

 

[00t444e]

That, unfortunately, falls under the category of operator error.

How so? Nothing wrong with leaving your hood up for a long time.

 

[fastpakr]

How so? Nothing wrong with leaving your hood up for a long time.

True.

Leaving it up that long and not addressing the situation to avoid your battery running down? That -does- fall under operator error.

 

[Curious Hound]

What he^^^ said. If you're leaving the hood up a long time, remember to unplug the hood light harness or remove the bulb to prevent running the battery down.

 

[Ramcharger90]

I always liked the under hood light from the old Dodge power rams and ramchargers it had a long retractable wire so you could pull it almost to the back of the truck. Old school and completely obsolete today but still cool.

 

[cbxer55]

I don't know if it's supposed to do it, but the underhood light on my 04 Lightning goes off after about 10 minutes. But during that ten minutes, it gets hot enough you cannot touch it to unscrew it.

During the winter the hood is up all the time, to keep a battery tender hooked up to it, since I seldom drive it during the winter. If it snows once, out comes the salt and sand mix. And in the garage stay muh three bikes and the L:IGHTNING until a good rain washes that crap away.

 

[00t444e]

What he^^^ said. If you're leaving the hood up a long time, remember to unplug the hood light harness or remove the bulb to prevent running the battery down.

Read post 22 again.