a short can indeed cause this. Any grounding of the positive flow can cause numerous problems. Fix it befor you have a meltdown or fire.
bad wiring in your steering column to the hand control?
burned out bulb, blown fuse, wiring
water in the wiring or a low battery
check the bulbs themselves they sometimes short out internaly & cause feedback also check sidemarker lights I have changed all bulbs and fuses! Wiring problem???
All of these parts run on electricity, and for all of them to fail would be bad. Bad or burnt wiring could cause them not to work, or a alternator going bad could cause them not to work as well.
It very well could. Before I condemned it, I would check the wiring from the computer to the injector with a multimeter. Sometimes squirrels and rats love to chew the wiring for some strange reason.
Wiring or bad bulbs
A blown fuse or the headlight switch could be at fault ,also possibly a broken wire in the light switch wiring.
Because you haven't fixed them. The cause of the problem could be in your dimmer switch, the lights themselves, the relay, the wiring... it's going to take some diagnosis to narrow it down.
sometimes the head lights and tail lights may be fused separately,check your fuses.you could have a bad ground.thats just two places to start.
I found this on my 1997 Silverado and found the connection from the wiring harness to the back OS the switch itself was loose, I could wigle it arouns and make the lights come back on.
The most common cause for this is a fault in the cars tow bar wiring. If you dont have a tow bar the next best thing to check is the wiring going to the front park lamps. On the 240 the wiring could sometimes rub on the vehicles frame causing a short. the condition of the brake light bulbs is also worth a look, as on some dual filament bulbs the filament can collapse and short out the connections inside the bulb.