I usually spend slot of time talking nut and bolts with the service techs who aren't busy when I'm in the service dept, just specifically to plant that seed!! You are soooo right about that.. Glad I'm no the only one who thinks so. I usually will "casually mention" that I just was here las weekend picking up oil and fuel filters and got that service all done. Just to let em know I usually turn my own wrenches

 

In my experimenting to try to figure this out here is what I have for data:

condition: headlight bulbs plugged into oem wire harness ,no plow conected and the plow light toggle switch set to "vehicle lights" in other words the normal oem condition

result: headlights operate in both high beam and low beam. With or without oem foglights turned on. Headlights operate in both high beam and low beam in headlight "on" position (all the way clockwise) and also operate in both high beam and low beam in the autolamp position (all the way counterclockwise) with or without the oem fog lights on.*

Condition: **headlight bulbs plugged into plow wire harness , with plow conected and the plow light toggle switch set to "plow lights"

result: plow headlights operate in both high beam and low beam. With or without oem foglights turned on. Plow headlights operate in both high beam and low beam in headlight "on" position (all the way clockwise) and also operate in both high beam and low beam in the autolamp position (all the way counterclockwise) with or without the oem fog lights on.

Condition: * headlight bulbs plugged into plow wire harness , without plow conected and the plow light toggle switch set to "vehicle lights"

Results: when headlight switch is turned to "on" or to "autolamp" the low beams come on only briefly, less than 2 seconds. After the low beams go out, I can turn the high beams on and they stay on and operate normally. If I switch back to low beam they stay on only briefly (less than 2 seconds) and will not come back on. This happens whether the fog lights are activated or not.*

All that being said I have to believe that both the headlight switch and the multifunction switch on the column are both fine. Otherwise I would think that the same headlight condition would happen in all cases. For example if the "on" position of the headlight switch was "bad" or "faulty" I would think it wouldn't matter whether I was in high or low beam. Also if that position on the switch was bad, what would the chance be that the autolamp position of the switch was bad as well. I'm going to take it in tomorrow and I guess have them take a look at it and see what they think. My garage guy at work is going to pull the full text tsb for me tonight and take a look at it, and print it for me. Fortunately they have direct access to the Ford database through work.*

I'll be sure to post up and tell you all what they find and if the fix it and if it was covered or not.*

On a side note: I am very active on FJRforum.com. Which is a community of Yamaha FJR owners. It is very active, and the depths of knowledge there related to the FJR is mindblowing.*

I have to say in the brief time I've been here, I can see already that this community is of a similar makeup. The speed in which replies are posted and the content thereof has a nice familiar feel to it, that rivals the FJRforum. Just so I am clear, this is a heavy duty complement I am tryin to make about this forum and it's members. Thanks for giving a guy a place to do research, find answers, and share similar interests with other likeminded people.*

 

Glad to be of any help. I have learned soo much about my truck on this forum , by just using the search engine alone.

When you are here, your family....lol




Slim_Dowg

 

To Update on this:

I went to the dealer the day before we got walloped here with snow: In and out in an hour and a half
the tech did the re-program on my Smart Junction Box, my headlights worked through the entire 20 hours of plowing I did.. So prblem solved ( or so I thought)

... as I was pulling up my road to go home, I lost the low beams. I cycled the headlight switch on and off and pushed in in and out (fog lights) and they came back on.

Grrrrrrrr. Thats what I get for telling my buddy Rick how glad I was that the headlights worked for me through the whole storm. lol
Oh well I think I will get a new switch and swap that out my self. I really thought it was the programing thing.. I don't know anymore now. maybe a combination of both. maybe the excess load is in the switch and not because of the plow harness install, and the reprogramming helped, but the switch is now degraded even more to the point where the reprogram cant help. I will get a switch and let you know...

 

I replaced the headlight switch yesterday, the new one definately has a stiffer feel to it. I mean when I turn it to any position it has a secure click to each spot.

Headlights have come on and stayed on every time.

The light from the headlights seems brighter also. Not tremendously, but a little brighter at least. I do most of my driving at night (in the dark) because of my work schedule. So I notice the performance of my lights probably a little more than the average owner.

I guess my final thought is that the original switch was faulty, causing the smartjuntion box to interpret it as a short, and in turn would cut the power off to the low beam circuit, after the reprograming of the smart junction box, I got the lights back for a couple days, but after the switch degraded a little more I was back to intermittent lights. Hopefully this will be the end of the problem, $38 and change for the switch, and $~100 bucks for the reprogramming of the smart junction box.

I'll be curious if I get longer life out of the most recent headlight bulbs I put in, than I got out of the previous sets.