1997 Outback, no park/running lights.

[Evinrude]

Hello all.

 

I have a 1997 Legacy Outback that I'm having some lighting trouble with. Currently, my park lights and running lights will not come on, so I haven't been able to drive at night. I've searched around for a solution on the net, but so far haven't been able to find my issue. Most of the threads that turn up during a search have to do with the parking lights staying on, not staying off.

 

So far I have checked the fuses on the drivers side and under the hood, and I've checked the relays under the hood. I've also checked all bulbs and they are good. I tried flipping the park light switch on and off to see if there was something going on there, but it is not working to switch the lights on anymore. 

 

Anyone have an idea; common failure spots, where to check/what to do next, etc...?

 

[Sandrion]

Hey guys, any thoughts on this issue? A bad ground somewhere? A switch? Anything is helpful (my friends car, I might be helping to fix it).

 

Thanks again!

[Fairtax4me]

Usually this is because the park light switch on top of the steering column has a bad wire connection or the switch has failed. There is a second set of contacts in the switch that provide power to the parking lights even when the switch is off, and those can Occasionally go bad.

 

The easy fix is the cut the wires going to the switch (since that switch is kinda useless here in the US) and connect the correct two wires together. I don't remember the wire colors off-hand but IIRC there are only there wires. One of them will have 12v going to it all the time. One of them will make the lights stay on. The other will turn on the lights only if the key is on and the headlamp switch is on.