Light socket

[Chris]

My right trunk-mounted taillight has never been right in the 2 years since I bought the car. Sometimes it won't go on at all, sometimes it works almost normally, mostly it is on at about half brightness.

I took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and pulled light housing. The bulb is ok but there are orange patches in the socket, and its no wonder that the light has been 'iffy'.

Should I just go to the dealership to get a new socket, or is there another place I would be better off going? The back of the socket reads:

PED

1 G

F.L.Z.Z.Z.

A B

Some of the letters are skewed a bit, not sure how to enter preformatted text into this.

So, my questions - what is the part number, and are there cheaper alternatives to the dealer? Also, is this a common problem with these cars? There is an identical car to mine in town and funny enough, it has the same problem with the same light.

Thanks

[PAUL T]

Have you tried cleaning the contacts, take a knife or screw driver and scrap the crud of them. Sometimes the springs will wear out and make sure the wire connections are good. You might use some WD40 to clean it up.

[Chris]

I tried that, but it didnt seem to make a difference. The actual contacts look pretty clean, it is the area around the base of the bulb (not contacts) that look very scorched. Not sure why this might be.

[PAUL T]

Sounds like the bulb is not making good contact and causing the burnt look at the base. Try pulling up the contacts so they touch the bulb better. Be careful not to pull too hard. You might try a little dielectric grease on the contacts. Sounds like you would be better off changing it out though. Good Luck.

[Logan]

Hah....is it common....yeah just about every one.

Look at the picture. If yours is like this....it needs a new socket.....

Bad internal ground burn marks-

[gc_caddy]

I have seen aftermarket sockets for sale. I didn't check if they had them for a Cadillac (since I wasn't looking for one), but there was a large selection of different types hanging in the display. Up here in Canada, they can be found at Canadian Tire stores.

[Chris]

Ok thanks guys. I'll try Canadian Tire, and if they dont have anything, I'll see how much the dealer wants

[cpk]

Go to www.acdelco.com

Find your car in the online catalog.

Taillight sockets are under Electrical / Sockets

There appear to be several part numbers, but there are pictures so you should be able to identify them.

Once you have a part number, you can get them online at www.rockauto.com or at a local ACDelco dealer.

[cpk]

One of these appears to be what you need, at least according to the catalog:

LS96 ($10.35)

LS7 ($11.64)

LS7 picture

LS6 ($23.79)

LS6 picture

[rek]

If you're going to get new sockets, why not get the type (left one in Logan's picture) that has a better socket? I have replaced a few, but I soldered the wires instead of the crimp splice method. I used heat shrink tubing to protect the splice.

[CadiKing]

Nice Job, REK! 'A Man After My Own Heart!

{I couldn't resist...}

This way you'll never worry about that connection Again!

Bravo

[Logan]

The left socket is a 2000 Deville backup lamp socket. It really does super fix the problem. It also requires a differnet blub. The # of I dont have handy this second.

Why a dual filament blub on a back up lamp? Alarm/security system! These really do fix the hot socket problem.

[Chris]

I found a replacement socket in town. (UAP/NAPA for $8 CAD). Popped it in, wired it up etc and found that while the normal "parking" type filament worked, the one for turn signal/brakes still didnt. I pulled the socket off and got out a voltmeter. The yellow wire read 0 at the socket. I pulled the carpet from the trunk to reveal the wire harness leading to the trunk. There was voltage at yellow wire there. Cut the wire and the left light (in addition to the right which is the problem) stopped responding to brake/signals.

It seems that both of the trunk signals/brakes are connected with this yellow wire. Not sure how it differentiates between right and left signals. I've left the wire clipped for now, so the trunk lights only function as running lights. This weekend I'm thinking of pulling the wires and running new ones through the trunk. How hard would you expect this to be (there are maybe 12 wires in the trunk harness)? Also, does anyone have a wiring diagram that they could post/send me? Thanks!