burnt out tail lights?

[92troy92]

the brake lights on my 92 XLT are no longer working. they signal, I have reverse lights, and light as parking lights but when I push the brake pedal I get nothing. the light above the glass is working fine though. I checked all the fuses, and they are all good to go. I tried replacing the bulbs also, this didn't help either. has this happened to anyone else? does anyone have any tips for me? any help is greatly appreciated.

-troy

 

[jimbo74]

sounds like you have a wiring problem....

 

[ahhjaws]

Yeah, check to see if there is power getting to the light, then go from there.

 

[92KENNEY]

yeah check to see if your getting power back there and if not check the local area for shorts/frayed wires

 

[92troy92]

how do I check for a short? that is hwat I'm thinking would be the most likely culprit.

 

[ahhjaws]

If you had a short I would hope one of the fuses should have blown.

 

[92troy92]

like I said all my fuses were good. I'm going to take it to a shop and see what's going on I guess.

-troy

 

[dogfriend]

If you have a 12V test light or a voltmeter, you could check for voltage in the light socket. Touch the two probes to the contacts in the socket and have someone put their foot on the brake. If you don't have voltage in the light socket, then check the switch on the brake pedal called the BOO (brake on/off). To test the switch, you will need an ohmmeter. Also check the fuse with an ohmmeter if you have one, because sometimes the fuse can look ok but have a small crack across the element that is difficult to see.

If it isn't the switch and it isn't a blown fuse, then look for connectors that might have come loose or wiring that somehow got damaged.

 

[tenikiwon]

did you check your bulbs. I had the same problem and felt stupid, but so did the mechanic when we were running all over trying to locate it. Then pulled the tail lights off and notices that both bulbs went dead.

 

[andypinto]

yeah, definitely is a wiring problem, because if the fuses are good then no short over there.
The bad news: if is a wiring problem is more hard to troubleshoot, because you have to check the wires step by step to find the broken area.
Hope that you can find the defective area near the beggining or the end of the wiring harness, because, you know, the wiring harnesses looks like veins and arteries, so the problem is more easy to repair if the broken wire is in the thin part of the harness, not in the thick one .

 

[92troy92]

I got it back from the shop today, and they had to replace the hazard light switch in the steering coloum. They said that the previous owner must have had the same problem because the said that it looked like the wiring had been like ghetto-rigged. But anyway all is well for now....good old American cars, don't you just love'em?

-troy

 

[Defiantguy]

same thing happened to me the other day on a unrelated incident but it was the fuse for me(thank god).

 

[boominXplorer]

Same thing happened to me but it was in the bulb. There are 2 wires in a bulb, 1 for parking and one for brake. My one for my brake went out so that might be your problem. just my 2 cents