Headlight Gremlins

[Alan]

So I have been having weird issues with my headlights. I'll start at the beginning:

Last weekend I noticed the passenger side headlight didn't work. No biggie, just change the bulb. The harness/plug looks a little melted from what probably was a too high wattage bulb from a previous owner. It is still intact and will last until I get a replacement.

I notice on strange ocassions my headlights only will momentarily cut out for what seems like a second.

Fastforward to today. Get out of work tonight, start the car, turn the headlights on, and nothing. Parking lights are on, nothing else. I am able to flash the high beams, however they will not stay on. So after about 5-minutes of driving around with my highbeams manually on, my low beam finally kicks on. At this time, I can turn on my highbeams without having to constantly pull back on the stick. My passenger side lowbeam does not work.

Any ideas what is going on? I'm going to order two plastic plugs. If this doesn't work, what else could it be? Has anyone else experienced this issue?

[Mr. Pink]

You may want to replace the headlight switch as well. These are still available from Ford. I'm having some similiar issues as well, mine will come on just fine and then cut off every now and then. I just push the switch off and then back on and that seems to fix the problem, for a little while anyways. I need to replace my switch as well.

[Alan]

Thanks for the info. I went ahead and ordered a switch along with the two headlight sockets. If anyone has not seen it... 50resto.com has some great stuff. They have a nicely priced SVO steering wheel in there as well.

[GAboySVO]

You might want to also look at the wiring for the fog lights. They draw a lot of amps and can cause the switch to die.

I had a similar problem in that I was driving down the bump interstate here in LA LA land and the headlight started blinking with the bumps. I had just recently reactivated my fog lights and had them on. I turned off the fog lights and the problem went away.

There is how to information on the web that explains how to put in a relay for the fog lights to isolate their current draw.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

NOT SVO specific!

Bad grounds can do all of this. They did it on my F-250 and they did it on my SVO. Scrub down the ground wire contact locations on the radiator core support. Check the voltage drop before and after cleaning with a multimeter.

[bigwingsaleen]

H/L problems

I had a simular situation happen with my SVO...low and high beams seemed to work when they wanted, although I did not have a left/right problem

I was told there is a circuit breaker inside the switch so I replaced headlight switch and solved everything.