alil2cul4u

Hey guys,

So in August or September I noticed my left (driver side) brake light does not work and dims my tail light while the lights are on at night. It went away through December and January but its back. do you guys know what the problem could be? I took the light out and cleaned away the corrosion. I cant figure this out. I can take some pictures of what happens. I believe the brake light works when my lights are off!

alil2cul4u

Ok, I went out and took the pictures! And, Here they are. Sorry for the horrid pictures they are off my phone. and I had the garage lights off so you guys could see the lights ( we have 4 long fluorescent lights) The First one is of the lights on and the brake peddle down, the Second is of just the brake lights (brake peddle down), The third is of only the lights on. I hope someone here has an idea of what is going on.

abecedarian

Broken brake light filament in the bulb shorting across to the running lights?

alil2cul4u

I dont know what that is sorry but I know the light bulb was replaced because we thought the problem was the bulb but it didnt help.. Should I check the bulb again?

abecedarian

After looking the pics more closely, you did put a dual-filament bulb in the driver's side housing and it is installed properly, right?

alil2cul4u

Here is a picture of the bulb that I pulled out of there! That is the kind of light bulb that AZ told me it took so i bought a pack of 2.

abecedarian

the bulb type is 1157?

AK93RUNNER

Check the GROUND wire connection at the socket. Mine had very similar problem, corrosion ate away at it, I tried resoldering it but ended up ponying op the 30 bucks to replace the wiring in the taillight.
If the picks are of an 1157 bulb that is the correct application for the running / brake light.

alil2cul4u

Yup 1157LL

Which one would the ground be? All 4 of the prongs seem to be ok. They all look pretty clean!

AK93RUNNER

When tou are looking at the socket for the run/brake light, there is a wire that goes INTO a plastic "tunnel" for lack of a better term. It contacts the socket wall and is the ground. All the pins at the base of the socket may be fine. But if the ground is bad you will have problems. Check it all out with a multimeter. Disconnect the pigtail and check continuity through the wire and the plug socket. I do not have mine handy to post pics.

alil2cul4u

I took a quick picture of the wire harness. Im posting now. Can you please explain to me what I have to do! I do have a multimeter, But I dont really know how to use it. I had a hard enough time figuring out the ohm testing to test my MAF

mick cassidy

OK heres what i would do im pretty good with wiring
first off get a hot tester its a tool with a spike and a ground lead find a ground poke the spike into the WIRE for each one like turn the tester will flash . next brake next running so if that checks out the problem is in the plastic socket its kind of hard to reach in there its a cheap part at the dealer though then when you clean or replace use DIELECTRIC GREASE
to stop corrosion and u will never have that issue again the ground wire is in there too so heres what i do to see if its a bad ground reverse the tester by sticking the spike into the ground contact then the clip touch that to a known hot like the brake wire and if it lights u got good ground if it dont theres ur problem yes u will need somone to step in the brakes work the switches etc etc

alil2cul4u

Well, I just took one of the prongs out of the plastic connector and the inner part is pretty corroded. Im posting a picture right after this!

alil2cul4u

Notice how green and corroded it is. I'm wondering if the wire inside the connector is even getting contact because of how corroded it is?

AK93RUNNER

The socket with 3 wires going to it, two are the leads for the turn, running lights. The third is a ground. The ground goes into the "tunnel" connects to the socket. It is visible from the socket side. IF it is not coroded away. There is a small brass colored tab that the ground wire was originally connected to. Place your multimeter in the ohms, tone mode")))))" also known as the beep mode. Touch each of the four conectors one at a time with one lead, have the other lead touching the socket wall. When you get a tone you have continuity. That good. If you never get a tone you have no ground because there is a break in the wire (somewhere) bad
If this does not show you the problem you will have to look deeper in your wiring harness, electrical system

alil2cul4u

My harness has 4 copper "prongs". Should I have it hooked up or taken off the car to test in ohms? My multimeter is a cheap on from harbor freight so it does not beep I have to watch the screen! But I tried it with the harness off the car. I held the black probe to the wall and went through all of the "prongs" on the connector and had a zero the whole time!

AK93RUNNER

off the car is usually easier. I have never used a non digital meter. But if your meter showed "0" ohms then that would be continuity. If it showed "1" or more then you have aproblem

alil2cul4u

It is a digital. And I'm sorry. I confused myself. I meant to say it wouldn't show a zero, I only showed a 1 like if my probes weren't touching each other. I'm in the process of scraping the"prongs" that I took out of the connector. Im on the last one as I have taken them out 1 by 1 and scraped all them clean. Then I will re test them!

alil2cul4u

What does it mean if my ground is reading a 0.49?

EDIT:

After scraping a little more off. I got a 0.00 on all of the wires. I even cleaned the blinker prong. So I hope this will fix my problem!

alil2cul4u

Ok, so after testing them, and getting 0.00 on all of them I figure it is supposed to work, Correct? The harness on the light is good, but I get it back on the car and test it on the car but I still have the same problem! Tomorrow afternoon after school I will take the right side off and test this one on the right side and that one on the left side to see what one has the problem and hope that its not wiring in the car! Thanks for your guys help! If you guys have any suggestions please tell me them!