OK so long story. Went to car wash, washed truck, headlights would not turn off. disconnect battery, after a couple days drying, reconnect and starts working again. Snow, wet, same problem. this time around a little smoke from under hood, some funny noises, and dash lights flicker, then go out as well. headlights stuck on again after i turn it off, disconnect battery. next day, pull out battery, find some burned and fused wires behind it, cleaned all, fixed all, replace battery and headlights are off. everything seems ok but when i go to turn on headlights, nothing, no dash lights, no running lights, no "your lights are on" sound when the door is open with the switch on. First thing I figured is that it is the switch thingy, 109 bucks new, but as I am reading over a few things, bad grounds are mentioned and I noticed where the negative wire connects to the battery is a little corroded, i didnt think that it was enough to clean up, could that be the problem? what else could it be? any help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance, Shane

 

Welcome to electrical trouble shooting!!

Have you checked the fuses?? each head light has it`s own fuse.

If the lights stayed on most likely the contacts in the head light relay were stuck closed allowing the lights to stay on. Meaning your most likely going to need one of those.

If you don`t have a multimeter now might be a good time to invest in one.

Before you go throwing parts at this problem find out what was burning .

Any corrosion is not good and should be cleaned Baking soda works great with water to rinse it off after it cooks for awhile.

 

All fuses are good. Got a multimeter. Wires were melted so it was them. What should I test? Could it be the relay? Does the relay control power to the dash and running lights as well? Can I test where the relay plugs in to see if there is power there?