RR Tail light trouble

[jschenck]

Having an issue with the right rear tail light. The bulb is good and has been replaced. The brake light lights up normal, until you turn the driving lights on. At which point the bulb is still lit like normal, but goes black when the brake pedal is pressed. When changing the bulb, I noticed that the socket the bulb clips into looks burned, like the brake light got too hot. The other side is fine though, leading me to believe this is an issue with the housing. I cleaned and sprayed the terminals with WD-40 and that solved the problem...for a while. My guess is that the tail light assembly needs to be replaced. Any other thoughts? Also, it doesn't appear to be a wiring issue.

 

[Billwill]

Having an issue with the right rear tail light. The bulb is good and has been replaced. The brake light lights up normal, until you turn the driving lights on. At which point the bulb is still lit like normal, but goes black when the brake pedal is pressed. When changing the bulb, I noticed that the socket the bulb clips into looks burned, like the brake light got too hot. The other side is fine though, leading me to believe this is an issue with the housing. I cleaned and sprayed the terminals with WD-40 and that solved the problem...for a while. My guess is that the tail light assembly needs to be replaced. Any other thoughts? Also, it doesn't appear to be a wiring issue.

First change the tail assembly seeing as it is burnt.
If that does not fix it then there is a good chance that the ground for that assembly is bad....quit a common problem.

The best way to fix a grounding problem in the tail light cluster is to directly add a section of wire to the bulb holder body and attach the other end to a nearby grounding point. The best way to get a convenient ground point is to drill a small hole in the metal bodywork inside the cluster cavity, clean the paint off and attach the wire there with a self-tapping screw.

Before you do this drilling etc. above you can test if that is your problem by attaching a long wire to the bulb housing and grounding that temporarily on a clean metal part of the chassis such as the tow-bar area. If this fixes the problem then you can either find the original ground point for that cluster or modify it as above.

 

[Ry' N Jen]

X2 with what Billwill said.

 

[Rennagade]

I had an issue with this as well. It turned out there was a LOOSE clear plastic lens inside the housing. It shrinks with age I guess. What happened was this loose lens would lean on the bulb and create additional heat OR it would hit it so hard it would crack the bulb. I used a pair of long nose pliers and broke it into small pieces and removed it. It is not needed and I have never had an issue since.