Dash lights and tail lights not working for your F150? Well, try checking the fuse boxes, bulbs, dash light switches, wires, cables, filaments, and the grounding state. There can be several reasons why the lights may not be working. Replacing, reassembling, and a little bit of tinkering will solve all of these problems. They are easy to handle and won’t require a mechanic and their exorbitant fees.

Modern car dash boards provide a lot of information about the car and its working. Most modern cars now have digital dash boards that work with a lot of lights or different colors to deliver some particular information.

This information includes vehicle speed, acceleration, current gear the car moving in, fuel level, and other a lot of warning signals (seat belt, open door). If the dashboard light is not working then it will be very difficult to drive your car safely.

Similarly, if your tail lights are not working driving especially at night will be dangerous. Read this article to the end to know how to handle the situation.

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Reasons And Fixes for Dash Lights And Tail Lights Not Functioning Properly

Dash Lights And Tail Lights Not Functioning Properly reasons and fixes infographic

There are many possible reasons for your Ford F150 dash lights and tail lights failing to work. Below is a list of the possible reasons and how to fix them.

Burnt Fuse

The most common reason for tail light not working is a blasted fuse. A ford f150 comes with several fuse compartments.

The first fuse box that you should check is situated under the cabin for passengers, which is to the left corner of the steering wheel. If you still cannot find it, take help from the diagram book, which you can find tucked inside the box.

However, depending on the manufacturing year of your car, the location of the fuse box will differ. So, it is better to take the help of your car’s manual if you fail to find the fuse box.

To fix the blown-out fuse, you need to replace it with a new one. Here’s what you have to do.

Open the Fuse Box & Check the Wattage

First, pull out the panel cover to get to the fuse box. Different manufacturing year of F150 has different detaching technique. If you cannot remove it by yourself, take the help of your vehicle’s manual.

Make sure the fuse wattage reading is same as recommended for new fuse it has to be same wattage as the old one. If the wattage is low, then it might not be functional with the car. And if the watt is too high, the risk of your fuse getting blasted will increase significantly.

If you find that the replacement of the fuse box is too strenuous for you, take the help of a professional mechanic from an auto dealer shop.

Blown Out Bulbs

If you find that your fuse box is alright, then you should check the state of the bulbs of your dash light. Most of the time, people think that the damaged dash light might have been caused by faulty or worn-out wires, defective light switches, or the strips of LED on the dash.

So, when they check and find out that nothing is wrong with these, they become frustrated from not being able to detect the problem.

The thing you should do is detach the bulb and inspect the filament. Long-time usage makes the filament brittle and reduces its functioning power. As a result, it cannot provide the lights with sufficient power.

To fix this issue, simply replacing the filament of the bulb will not work. You need to change the whole bulbs of your vehicle from the dash panels. Only then will your dash lights and tail lights will turn on.

Blasted Dash Lights

Dash lights have the tendency to get burnt inside the fuse box. This is caused by the overheating of the fuse box. Overheating of the fuse box happens when there is too much resistance in the wire.

So, to solve this issue, you must swap the old wire and fuse box with a new one, and your dash light and tail light will start to function properly.

Displaced Dashboard Switch

Sometimes the switch of the dashboard gets clicked accidentally, which causes the dashboard lights of your F150 to get turned off. So, if there is no light coming out of your dashboard, try clicking the light switch and see if the light comes on.

Another reason for this could be that the dial of the light got rotated accidentally, which has made the light extremely dim. So, try to rotate the dial and see the dashboard lights brighten up.

If neither of these is causing the dash lights to be off, you should check both the fuse box and the light bulb. But if the fuse is burnt out, it will make the dash light non-functional.

Damaged light bulbs also cause the absence of light on the dashboard. In both of these cases, simply changing the fuse box or the light bulb will resolve the problem, and your dashboard will radiate light.

Poor Feed

A substandard relay is one of the most common causes of dash lights and tail lights not functioning. The reason for this bad relay is improperly grounded wire. Badly grounded wire causes them to spark and may also cause failed ignition.

You can fix the bad connection and faulty grounded wire by replacing the cables or wires and adding further grounded links.

Chipped Wires

Damaged wire can also cause your dash lights and tail lights to stop working. As a solution, you need to replace or solder the wires.

Fixing the wires of your F150 is a tricky and dangerous process, so you need to be extra cautious. You need to make sure that all of the wire connectives are grounded before you try to remove them.

Fix Your Dash Lights And Tail Lights Now

Non-functional dash lights and tail lights are very dangerous for your vehicle and can get you into serious accidents. So, you should not waste your time and get these lights fixed as soon as possible.

After getting to know the the possible reasons for your Ford F150 dash lights and taillights not working and what you should do, hopefully, it won’t be a problem anymore.

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