Taillight Problems

[Chris]

Hey everyone.

When I bought this car, I was told the taillights were a little off, the right trunk-mounted light didnt act as a turn signal (I tried replacing the socket and the bulb), but I eventually just cut the wire that operates the turn signal so neither of the trunk-mounted lights would flash.

The outter pair of lights on the passenger side work fine.

The outter pair of lights on the drivers side function as turn signals OR parking lights OR brake lights just fine, but when both filaments try to come on (ie when the lights are on and you try to brake or turn on turnsignal), the two lights are only at full brightness opposite to each other.

So, if i have the lights on and I brake, only one of the bulbs brightens to indicate braking.

If I have the lights on and I signal left, the 2 lights brighten at opposite times to each other.

I thought it might be bad wiring, so I pulled off the electrical tape to look at where the 3 wires split to go to each socket, but they seem to be ok. I replaced thee 1157 bulbs that were in use with the factory recommended 2057s.

With the 2057s in, there is no difference in brightness between the parking lights and the brakes/turnsignals. You can see the 2nd filament lighting up if you look closly, but there is no appreciable difference.

I will get a new pair of 1157s today (I broke the old ones taking them out), but I still will be left with the problem of the out-of-sync turn signals, and the appearance of a burned out brakelight when the parkign lights are on.

The sockets appear to be in good shape.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

[Northstar]

Look at all your sockets where the ground wire goes in. If you see black inside the white plastic of the socket you should replace all of your rear sockets and hook back up your trunk lights. Then everything should work properly.

[Chris]

Thanks, I will take a look and replace them if needed. Is it an early socket design that is faulty or what?

Also an update, I think i shorted something as now the drivers side brake lights don't work at all. I suspected a bad relay and popped off the cover from the driver's firewall, but couldn't find the relays.

Does anyone have any suggestions or wiring diagrams?

Thanks again!

[lack34]

Have you checked the fuses on the left side wall on the inside of the trunk? Check your owners manuel for somewhat detailed descriptions of what each fuse controls. --lack34

[Chris]

Well, turns out (as Northstar suggested) that a bad socket was to blame.

The outter driver-side running/signal/brake light was semi-operational the whole tiem, but on removing the bulb, the other lights worked as they were supposed to.

I tested the socket to verify it was bad - it put the power for the turnsignal through the opposite filament as the brakelight (making the difference impossible to see) and somehow disrupting the operations of the other sockets.

Thanks again guys!

[Northstar]

Glad you found the problem! I first replaced one socket but I noticed it was much brighter than the rest so I snipped off the other five and repaced with the GM replacement sockets and six new 2057 bulbs. Now everything is bright and perfect again.

[Northstar]

There is a known ground problem with the sockets. They problem is hard to see because it's encased in plastic. Someone on here took a socket apart and it was all burnt inside.