somebody help me with my taillight problem... shoebox?
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 464
From: Abilene, TX
somebody help me with my taillight problem... shoebox?
okay... i've been trying to get help with this for a long time, and maybe now somebody will finally have an answer for me. maybe shoebox can chime in here, you always know something 
when i have my lights turned off, my brake lights work fine. once i turn my lights on... both the bulbs that are supposed to get brighter when i hit my brakes go out on the driver's side... and one lights up and one goes out on the passenger side. when i turn on my blinker... on the driver's side, the light goes out, then comes back on, etc giving it the illusion that it actually works. on the passenger side... one goes out, and ones gets brighter... like a blinking christmas light effect...
at any rate, i have no idea what it is. i'm sure that it's not the flasher, it's not the bulbs... i've heard people say "maybe it's the sockets"... but from the way it looks, it's not that simple. maybe there's another solution here that i'm not finding? anybody got any input here?
- jay
when i have my lights turned off, my brake lights work fine. once i turn my lights on... both the bulbs that are supposed to get brighter when i hit my brakes go out on the driver's side... and one lights up and one goes out on the passenger side. when i turn on my blinker... on the driver's side, the light goes out, then comes back on, etc giving it the illusion that it actually works. on the passenger side... one goes out, and ones gets brighter... like a blinking christmas light effect...
at any rate, i have no idea what it is. i'm sure that it's not the flasher, it's not the bulbs... i've heard people say "maybe it's the sockets"... but from the way it looks, it's not that simple. maybe there's another solution here that i'm not finding? anybody got any input here?
- jay
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 564
From: Huntington, W.V. 25701
I have a 94 Firebird and had the same problems and replaced the tail light wiring harness off a 97 model. The sockets were to blame they had built up corrosion and caused high resitance, made tailights do all kinds of funky stuff. the harness is a plug in deal.
Registered User
Joined: Dec 1969
Posts: 27,725
From: Little Rock, AR
I would look at the sockets and make sure there is no corrosion. Clean them and the bulbs up and put new bulb grease on them. Also check anywhere the harness is grounded at the rear of the car.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 4,827
From: Waynesboro, PA
I'm going to have to go with sockets too, as when I first bought my black car it had your same problem. Replacing the sockets fixed it all.
FYI, DON"T get them from a dealer. They're like $50 a piece. You can get pretty much the same low profile sockets at Pep Boys or the like for about 3-5 a piece.
FYI, DON"T get them from a dealer. They're like $50 a piece. You can get pretty much the same low profile sockets at Pep Boys or the like for about 3-5 a piece.
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 2,929
From: vancouver, BC, Canada
yeah replace the rear harness, i got mine from e bay for 25 bucks off a ls1 car. the ls1s have brighter bulbs, better designed sockets. also like shoebox said the rear ground causes problems too.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 464
From: Abilene, TX
what's the rear harness you guys are talking about? i know what the sockets are... and if i could get this problem fixed and at the same time make my taillights a little brighter, that'd be great since i keep getting harassed about how dim my taillights are cuz of my blackouts...
- jay
- jay
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 2,929
From: vancouver, BC, Canada
heres a firebird ls1 harness
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2441290988
thats what it looks like and you just unplug your old one and plug in this one. takes about 20 minutes to do and the LS1s have different sockets for which you can use brighter bulbs. mine came with sylvanias.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2441290988
thats what it looks like and you just unplug your old one and plug in this one. takes about 20 minutes to do and the LS1s have different sockets for which you can use brighter bulbs. mine came with sylvanias.
Registered User
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 564
From: Huntington, W.V. 25701
What you do is remove all the tailights and then section between the tailights and it plugs in on the left hand side. I cleaned all my sockets checked for resistance and even tried given them all new grounds nothing worked. I think sockets should do the trick but would rather have a sealed harness. How do the sockets get wired??? do they have a pigtail or can you solder directly to the trminals???
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 2,370
From: Germany
ok i just replaced mine, and the ground wire was bad, and the owner before me rigged up some stupid thing where he added his own ground wire... but we played around w/ the light bulb to figure out what that wire did, it was just a ground but it was exactly like u say... so check ur ground wire, cause i guess it was bad on mine...
ohh well thats my advice i had similar problems, when the lights were on it was the break light, and when i hit the breaks it was out, ... stuff like that
ohh well thats my advice i had similar problems, when the lights were on it was the break light, and when i hit the breaks it was out, ... stuff like that
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 2,929
From: vancouver, BC, Canada
yes significantly brighter. mine came with sylvania bulbs so that may make a difference, but the socket design is much better so that too may make a difference. overall get the ls1 harness and sylvania bulbs from walmart.
