hey guys i need help with something the other day i drove my car and i turned on my lights i saw that only my headlights turn on and my dash and corners and rear lights dont work when i press the brake it turns on but when i turn on the lights it wont work…i checked my fuses a…witha test light and half of them ahve current and the other half dont…and they dont look blown either,and electrician told me that it could be the switch so i replaced and it didnt kmake a difference…has anybody encounter with this problem if so help me how to fix it cause i work in the night and i need my car so whatever it takes to get it fix i would do …thanx for any help
check your fuses again. There is one circuit that controls:
-parking lights, dash lights, taillights, dimmer circuit
Check that fuse. Sometimes fuses can be bad even if its not blatantly obvious. Sometimes the break in the fuse is off to one side and not very visible.
Oh, and don’t check your fuses w/ a test light… doesn’t even seem possible.
Yes it is , with the lights turned on stick the testlight probe into the 2 little dips at the top of the fuse, one on each side of the amp rateing of the fuse, if you read power on both sides, the fuse is good, if you read power on only one side, the fuse is bad 
94
hey checked and nothing???i alos took the car to an electrician and he told me that it could be the switch so i went to buy a switch at acura and it was still the same… :shrug: what else could it be i need to get this fix fast cause i need the car to wrok…if this has happen to u help me out…thanx
maybe your definition of “test-light” is different than mine. A test light is basically a light bulb with 2 wires coming out of it. Of course one end has an aligator clip and the other has a small point probe. You can’t “test a fuse” with it. However you can see if you’re getting power.
If you touch one end of the test light to one terminal on the fuse and the other probe to the other terminal on the fuse… nothing is going to happen, because a fuse is a fuse, and has no power source, and the test light has no power source… so the light can’t go on.
You can however test the fuse with a multimeter. Set it to test for continuity. Touch one lead to each terminal on the fuse, if the multimeter beeps… the fuse is good.
You can also test the fuse box with the test light. touch one probe to where one side of the fuse goes, touch the other probe to the other side of where the fuse goes. The light should turn on (assuming you turned that circuit on with the proper switch). If the light goes on then you know power is going through the system. But in his case (assuming the fuse is good) doing this test would do nothing. the light will not go on, and you will just have showed yourself that you already knew you had a problem.
99acclude: So you have replaced the switch, and the fuse… hmm, strange. If there is a short in that system the fuse should just blow. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be going on at all. If you have a test light, try this:
-gound one probe on the test light
-remove the fuse for this circuit
-turn on your parking lights
-hold the second probe to one of the terminals that the fuse fits into
does the light light up?
now, do the same thing, but touch the second probe to the other terminal (the one that the other end of the fuse plugs into). does the light light up?
The light should light up for one of those terminals, but not both. If you get the test light to light up, then you know for sure that the fuse box is getting power and that the fuse is getting power. As long as the fuse is good, then the rest of the system should be getting power. At that point I’d look over the wiring diagrams to see how the relays are setup for this circuit, then test them.
thanx for the help guys…after all it was a stupid fuse so now its fixed up…but what started this was when i was installing a radio…so yep…thanx :dance:
YES you can test a fuse with a testlight, I do it every day, the clip gos to ground, and the probe gos to the fuses “dips”, both of them, the fuse has to be in the fuse box, power has to be on, if the fuse is bad you will read power, [testlight will light up] at only one of the “dips” on the other hand if the fuse is good, you will read power at both “dips” :roll: 94
yeah, that would work, seems like an odd way of doing it… but that will definitely work. I’m just surprised you have enough room to even get the test light in position to do that, its pretty cramped down there.
LOL… Snap On makes a tool for anything, my testlight is a pistol grip, led, computer safe, testlight, [although I never use it for anything that I don’t know for sure is at least 1 amp 12v pos. or neg, I have a fluke for the rest, the testlight comes with a very slender, 6", flexable, screw on tip, it will go most anyplace. 94