Weird taillight bulb problem
 

Driver's side blinker has been going in and out in the past few weeks, so I went ahead and replaced all four bulbs in that taillight. The problem is that now, all the tail lights are VERY dim, my ABS light lit up, my brake lights don't work, and neither blinker works now.

Both of the upper spoiler brakelight bulbs are good. When you remove all the lightbulbs from the driver's side taillight, the passenger side and upper spoiler brake lights become much brighter.

Any ideas here?

Ryan

check the tail light harness ground, your lucky if thats your problem, other then that id say its your taillight harness. mine did the same for like a year till i found out quite a few people have had the problem on here. bought a taillight harness off of e bay for 25 bucks and works great!

Where is the harness ground? Is it on the rear decklid mounting brace?

the ground is right behind the lock solenoid area, a thin piece of black wire with a small screw. youll have to pull back the rear carpeting to see it. try scraping some of the paint of then retighten it, see fi that cures it. but id say its your harness.

Hazards are working now. All fuses look fine.

However, if I leave the lights on the warning chime becomes audible ONLY when I try to insert a bulb into the inner brake light socket. Its the chime you here when you leave your lights on and open your door (engine off). If I take the bulb out of the socket, the chime stops. Leads me to believe its a socket - backup on this diagnosis?

Are you guys using the 2057 and 194 (small outer ones) bulbs?

Thanks for the help so far, I appreciate it.
Ryan

the EXACT same thing happened to me, for me it was the harness, id say check your ground then replace the harness.

I was pretty sure that was the ground - that was the first thing I checked. Does the new harness include all new sockets?

Anyone have a Dal or Jason Cromer price? Sounds like a good idea if it includes all of the sockets.

Ryan

It is a common problem with the 3rd and 4th gens. i know i had both. The problem is the socket for the bulb that is not working either replace the harness like the rest of the guys or do what i did. go to your local autoparts franchise and just get a replacement socket for 5 bux instead of spending 25-30 on a whole harness,cut out the old one and splice in the new one with three butt connectors and wrap with elect. tape or shrink tape.....

check e bay first, i got mine complete with the bulbs! off of a 01 for 25 bucks. but yeah a new one will come with sockets

i bought my harness off of this guy, fast shipper and the harness was like new:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2432222631


heres a cheaper one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2431849320


both under 10 bucks

:D

I will try to find a socket. If the harness isn't too expensive brand new I like the idea of replacing them all at once.

Thanks for the help guys. I'll let you know...gonna try to fix it tomorrow.

Ryan

I think the 96 style (mine) is the "newer" version. If so, that might have my name on it :D.

Thanks man. I owe you some lunch! :cool:
Ryan

theyll both work on your car, just get the newest one.:)

I replaced my harness after hacking it up trying to get new sockets to work, eventually i replaced it only for it to still act jacked up. The 2 grounds I ended up seperating them and using one of the holes for another ground. So I guess 1 ground per bolt. Worked then. I went through HELL trying to figure out why it wouldnt work.