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Taillights not turning on with Headlights

Ottocycle

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Was informed by officer friendly this morning at 5:15am that my taillights were not on. Funny because my headlights were on. I had to manually turn my lights on to get my tails to light up. Anyone else have this problem? I do have a Putco LED light bar wired into my taillights along with a diode dynamics hitch light wired into my hitch receiver. I did not splice any wires. I used a Curt wiring harness for plug and play for the LED light bar and the hitch light is also plug and play. I'm at a lose as to why I have to manually turn my lights on now to get my tails to work.
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Noofis12

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Not sure what would cause this but a couple things you can try to narrow it down. Check the in line fuse (Assuming you had to run a power wire for the curt tail light converter) if the fuse is good, try bypassing the curt tail light converter and plug the tail lights back like it would be stock and test it. The aftermarket tail light converters can be hit or miss sometimes. I'm still not convinced that a bad converter it would cause your tail lights not to come on with the headlights.
 

jeffrol48197

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Are you sure you weren't driving on the DRLs, since those would appear to be headlights?
i.e., when daytime running lights are on, the taillights are not on...
 

Traegorn

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Sounds like for whatever reason you were driving with your DRLs (since they use the lowbeams on the XL and XLT)

If your truck was set to Auto on the headlights, maybe something's wrong with the sensor.
 

OleFordGuy

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As others have mentioned, could simply be DRL setting, but my gut thinks one or both your mods. Return to Stock to verify, then maybe try adding back 1 mod at a time to see if either or both mod items is the culprit
 

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dcs12345

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Take a pic of the headlight dial....
 
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Ottocycle

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Appreciate the responses. I have a lariat, and the headlights are definitely on. Switch is goes to auto when I start up. Will take some pics tonight. Kinda thinking it might have something to do with my lighting mods but the extra load on the circuit from leds is minimal. Have lasfit bulbs all around too. Dang I wish it was an easy answer. Will report back tomorrow with pics and any other useful information I find. Thanks everyone
 

cyberdog

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If you wired the Putco Tailgate light using a T-harness to the rear lamps, there's a known issue, which may cause one (or both) of the rear lights to stop working due to an overload. Somebody posted the problem a month or so back, and you need to tap a 12v source and feed the controller from that other source to supplement the 12 supply. - Sounds like the load of the Putco unit (even the Ford rebadged unit), may cause the taillamps to shut-down shortly after you start driving, or after you apply a turn signal for the 1st time during the drive cycle.
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