monroecoug

My son's 85 GT has headlight issues, only with the brights on. Random blinking, but only after the brights have been on awhile. Very subtle "tinking" noise under the dash near the steering column to the beat of the blinking lights. I thought it was loose wiring inside the column, but blinking happens with no vibration, engine on or off, and hands off everything. Took apart the column and everything looks fine.

The lowbeams work without issue. But then hit the high beams and after a bit the blinking resumes.

Related or unrelated problem: Car likes to die when deccelerating to a stop with the headlights on. Seemed to be related to depressing the clutch. Thought maybe it was an ignition coil, but not really sure.

Would appreciate a hint, or better yet, take me right to the problem.

Thanks

mgmuscari

Common Ford problem - this sounds like a bad headlight circuit breaker! Consider replacing the switch and breaker. Notice that your high beams will probably go on, even when the lights are "out," if you pull in the stalk to flash them... this bypasses the breaker.

I fixed this problem in my old Taurus a few years ago, too...

mattdel

Be sure that the low beams are turning off when the highs are triggered. If not, you'd be overloading the circuitry causing the thermal switch inside the headlight switch to activate.

mgmuscari

^^ what he said. my experience was that the breaker circuitry in the switch was bad and was heating up big time. replacing the switch solved the problem. feel the switch while it's on and see if it gets hot.