Tail Lights, randomly stopped working? Options

[amilleri]

So I started my car this morning to get it to warm up and when I came outside to get in I noticed the tail lights were not working. The brake lights still work and the fuse isn't blown, I doubt it is common for all 6 bulbs to go in them at the same time so anyone have an idea to put me in the right direction before I start pulling stuff apart?

[Nihil]

If nobody gives you any better idea on what could be the problem, I'd suggest you check the wiring harness. Remove the rear trunk plastic cover, disconnect the harness going to that tail light, and use a voltmeter to check each signal, while somebody turns the lights on and of (brake, fog, reverse and position lights). If all of the signals work (0V = OFF, 10-12 V = ON), then your problem is probably in the light bulbs, if not, your problem is somewhere else.

When I was changing the tail lights to JDM I noticed that all of the light bulb sockets were badly corroded - that might also be the cause of bad contact, but I doubt that it would cause most of your lights to fail at once.

[Jeebus]

So I started my car this morning to get it to warm up and when I came outside to get in I noticed the tail lights were not working. The brake lights still work and the fuse isn't blown, I doubt it is common for all 6 bulbs to go in them at the same time so anyone have an idea to put me in the right direction before I start pulling stuff apart?

Did you test the bulbs themselves? I'm not sure what you're saying here. The necessary bulbs light up when you hit the brakes, but they don't turn on when you turn the lights on on the light switch/stalk ?

I just received kouki tail lights and installed them, and the brake lights didn't work for one side. I freaked out that maybe the wiring was messed up. Surely enough, the filament in one bulb was gone for sure, the second bulb looked ok, so I switched bulbs from the working light to the non-working light and they worked fine. Turned out that both of the brake lights on my one side were actually broken. I couldn't switch out bulbs from my old set of tail lights since they use different bulbs, so I had to go down to 1 working bulb in each tail light only instead of having just one side with complete working lights.

[Special_Edy]

Do the side markers on the front fenders and front turn signals still light up (solid with the other lights, not talking about the blinker function)

[amilleri]

The front turn signals and markers work fine, bulbs are still good. Checking the relay out, and the wiring

[amilleri]

It seems that it was the wire harness for the tails, someone must have f'd with it considering it was butchered, and I'll be swapping out the entire harness thanks to justin soon! Right now it's just spliced to be working, but going to switch it out soon as I get a chance with some decent weather.

This post has been edited by amilleri: Dec 10, 2013 - 10:36 PM

[richee3]

I had the same thing happen after I got my car out of the body shop. Unplugged my tail lights and license plate lights, turned the lights on and plugged everything back in one at a time to see which harness had the short and popped the fuse. Oddly, the issue didn't show up and hasn't returned since.