no running lights on the passenger side.

[shadeshifter]

ok Cougar electrical gurus i don't have any running lights on my passenger side. it blows the fuse. i deducted that i have a short the question is where. has anyone had this similar problem before? can i be pointed in the right direction? i don'y have any stereo equipment or anything custom on the interior that may have crossed wires so i'm confused. thanks in advance.

[skater]

It's going to be a bear to diagnose that, I'm afraid. You may have a frayed wire somewhere, and finding it might be difficult. Which fuse is it, and exactly which lights are out?

I think I'd pull out all the bulbs on that circuit first and the fuse, then use a multimeter to see if the short still exists (check the connection on the fuse panel that goes to the lights - this can be found by pulling out the fuse, turning on the lights, and seeing which terminal does not have +12 volts). If there's continuity between that terminal and ground, then your short is in the wiring and not the bulbs. If it's in the bulbs, just replace all of them instead of trying to find the culprit (honestly, I've never heard of a bulb shorting out this way, but anything is possible).

When you pull the bulbs out, look for frayed wires (the turn signal on the fender would be my first suspect if that's one of the affected bulbs), bad connections, bad sockets, etc. Look at the bulb and make sure the wire terminals aren't touching. Also check by the fuse box for frayed wiring and such.

If those basic steps don't turn up anything, you're going to have to trace the wires. There are electrical wiring diagrams available for the Cougar, but that's not really what you need - you need to find the physical routing of the wires. The electrical diagrams will help in that they'll tell you what color wire you're looking for.

Also, what year do you have?

[shadeshifter]

wow thankyou so much for your reply. i have a 2001. and the amber light in the right front as well as the small bubble light in the right rear and the small 194 bulb on the passengerside headlight as well. all my turnsignals work. but all the parking lights you could say on the right side(like if you turn the headlight switch one click the parking lights come on) do not work. the left and right side parking lights are on different circuits, as well as the turnsignals are on there own circuit to. thankyou again for the time you took to write what you did. please let me know if you figure anything else out as i will let you know where i get from here!

[skater]

By "amber light in the right front" you mean the side marker (it's also a turn signal), right?

As I said, I'd start with that one - I remember thinking the wiring behind those on mine looked kind of loose. It's also very easy to pop those out and check them.

Also did you buy the car used? If so, are there any signs of prior modding that was removed?

[shadeshifter]

no not the sidemarker. the amber light in the headlight assembly. and i've owned this car since brand new.