lights won't shut off on '09 f150

I was trying to find a parking light wire on a 2009 ford f150 and now the head lights and parking lights won't shut off unless you disconnect the battery...doodie! Any ideas, short of taking it to the dealer?

what wires did you probe and try to connect to?

Remove the switch, remove the 3 screws that hold the switch together.  Take the back cover off, remove the circuit board, look for a tiny burnt trace, It may require a magnifying glass to find.  Once you locate it you need to jump it.   If you have an old IDE hard drive cable laying around, one of the conductors will make a great jumper.  Strip a few inches of insulation off of the wire and saturate the wire with solder.  Now apply solder to both ends of the burnt trace, place the jumper across the burnt trace, heat it up and hold in place until it cools.  Cut off the excess wire.   You applied the wrong polarity to the wire you were probing.

I sent 12 volts to the WHITE/ violet wire for like 2 seconds, my bad, it tested positive when the parking lights were on and gnd when off. I am aware of the ground based resistance in the vehicle, but I've never had this issue. thanks for your insight.

had similar problem on new face super duty guess it was 08/09   but yeah solder the switch back and catch the lights in pass kick or under hood at lights   the wire at switch is low current so it will sizzle i repaired the switch and no problems till this day dont remember the color maybe look up the super duty colors for reference                 tnx

This ought to be a sticky...does anyone else feel like they've read about late model Ford trucks and a problematic light switch about 5 times in this forum?C Renner's Auto Electronix

My service is cheap, quick, and good - pick any two

If I get another broken one I will take pictures of the repair process. It really is a simple repair, even for a novice. I do not know if the verbal instructions are too complex, or maybe they believe my screenname and are scared to try the repair, in fear of messing something up. I have given the repair instructions several times but I do not remember if anybody posted back that they had successfully repaired one of the units. I think that at least one of the switches are on Nationwide Backorder for a few months. So you guys better be careful and verify the polarity of the wires before connecting anything to them.

I just learned about this last week, when I burned out a headlight switch on an '09 Econoline doing the same thing. I didn't have a magnifiying glass, so I didn't try any repair on the switch.......just borrowed a switch from another van on the dealer's lot, and ordered another one. Three things to add: 1. I don't think you have to worry about the battery. On this van I was working on, I think the lights timed out after about 10 or 20 minutes. 2. You can at least feel better knowing that it's almost definite that you only burned out the switch, and nothing in the electronics of the truck itself. 3. The switch (for the Econoline van, anyway) is fairly cheap (under $35 list), but the bad side is that it's on national backorder, with an estimate or around two weeks to come in.

You younger people will probably not NEED the magnifying glass.  I had to use one to find the problem on the first one I worked on.  It isn't really that small.  Just a little hard to find for us older guys.