No Head Lights

[kilkm]

My '95 Le Sabre has developed an electrical problem and I'm looking for advice. The car sat for about 3 months this summer with a mechanical problem. I fixed the car the other day and started it up, everything runs great but now I have no headlights. No lights at all when I turn them on including tail lights and marker lights. If I turn the parking lights on they work including the tail lights but if I push the headlight switch all lights go off including the dash lights. I replaced the headlight switch, didn't help, same problem. I'm wondering if a mouse chewed some wires while it sat this summer and I have a bare wire somewhere that could be causing the problem. All other power features work and the turn signals work ok also. Never had any electrical problems with this car before it sat. Any ideas where to look, don't see any bare or frayed wires in the engine compartment but man there are a lot of wires on this car! Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

[Reatta Man]

Check voltage at the relays under the hood for the headlights. If you are not getting 12-13.8 volts at the supply point on the relay, then work backwards from there.

All lights being off definitely sounds like a wiring harness problem. Also, did you or anyone else disconnect ANY ground wires or straps either to the engine or from the engine to the frame (engine cradle)? These grounding straps are very important.

Sounds like a subscription to www.alldatadiy.com is worth the money at this point.

[Guest brh]

Also, during the mechanical repair is it possible a wire or wires got pinched, or something along those lines. It may sound stupid but when I have electrical problems especially on our presses the first question I ask is what was the last thing you did? Quite often the last move is the problem. Have found this to be true on cars as well. Just a thought.

[NTX5467]

If you can find the appropriate schematic, you can probe the "cells" of the connector at the switch and see if the appropriate one(s) has/have power to them. If the park lights work, though, that proves there is power "to" the switch, at least.

There should be a fuse for "headlights" in the fuse block or "convenience center", I think. EACH corner of the forward and rear wiring harness have a ground wire for them at THAT point . . . i.e., 4 grounds, 2 for each end of the car. If one has a connectivity problem, it will usually affect only that corner of the car, not the whole harness.

What about the brake lights? Do they work? Turn signals? The emergency flashers will flash whether all of the lights are working or not.

Keep us posted, please.

NTX5467