ahh tail light/brake light prob.

[xsoarerx]

For some reason my left hand side brake light works fine and my right hand side still works but is only 1/3 the brightness.

To add to this, when i have my head lights on the left brake light still works fine but the right brake light doesn’t work at all.

Would this be a broken wire? Maybe a partly broken wire? Or something else?

[ABUSEDDOG]

That sounds like a nasty kettle of fish.

According to my haynes electrical manual - under heading... when one brake light doesn't work but the other duz.


1. Check the bulb
2. Check the bulb socket for corrosion
3. Check for a bad ground connection by hooking up a jumper cable between the negative terminal of the non functioning light and a good chassis ground. If the light works now, repair the faulty ground connection.
4. Beggining at the non- functioning light and work backwards through the circuit, and check for a open or short.

Not really sure how the headlights work into it.

Practical exp. from me, is it usually corroded sockets or a bad ground wire in the taillight assembly.

Try swapping bulbs from one side to the other first.

Hope some of this helps,electrical sucks!!!

:D

[xsoarerx]

ive done the first two already, since i have spare tail lights around and it still does it.

i picked up a cheep Circuit Tester today so im going to have to check the last two, im guessing its bad wiring but some where - but if there was a brake i dont get how the brake light is shorted out by the tail light?


thanks for the help.

[CJSREDPRA]

:duh: :duh: :duh:

Sorry.......

This is now the 2nd thread in this section that has nothing to do with aftermarket engine management/engine electronics....

Could someone PLEASE move this to General Tech???????

[xsoarerx]

ahh sorry i thought this section was for Aftermarket Engine Management AND Electronics not Aftermarket Engine Management Electronics

my bad. :( - please move mods... thanks.

[Dean]

For some reason my left hand side brake light works fine and my right hand side still works but is only 1/3 the brightness.

To add to this, when i have my head lights on the left brake light still works fine but the right brake light doesn’t work at all.

Would this be a broken wire? Maybe a partly broken wire? Or something else?

I've seen weird things like this before and it's been due to something quite simple....

The tail light bulbs are also the brake light bulbs. They are "Dual filament" bulbs, meaning they have two filaments inside one bulb. One filament gets power for taillights, one gets power for brake lights. These dual filament bulbs have two contacts on the bottom. The socket they go into has two contact points as well. If something creates a connection between those two contact points in the bottom of the socket, all kinds of weird things happen. For example, power from the brake light circuit gets backfed into the taillight circuit, or vice versa.

Most likely things to create this type of connection between the two circuits would be
1. Putting a single filament bulb into a socket meant for a dual filament bulb.
2. Corrosion on the base of a bulb.
3. Corrosion on the bottom of the socket.
4. Loose/corroded/wet or broken ground point.
5. Loose or broken wire in a socket.
6. Loose/corroded/wet connector.

Good luck.

[makanak]

Classic symptoms of bad ground.

[xsoarerx]

problems fixed... it was a bad ground but i couldnt for the life of me find where it wasn't grouding.

easy soulution, im running both lights of the working one. so it works good now.:zzzzz: