....excellent idea sir...
Single rear tail light not working
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Feb 2017
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Single rear tail light not working
I installed the flush mount tail light kit from WCC last weekend and before this all my tail lights worked fine and had no issues. Now I have the inner most passenger side tail light not working. I removed it again to check and the element looked fine, didn't look burned out to me but it was not lighting up. I didn't have another bulb handy to test it...and now thinking on it I should've just taken the dumb thing out to make sure. But assuming the bulb is fine and my tail light still isn't coming on - any thoughts on what might be causing it?
This particular tail light when I took it out I noticed the plastic piece that is supposed to hold the wire close to it had broken off so the wire just kind of dangles around. It had rained recently and I did notice the black wire felt damp to the touch. Is it normal for this wire to sometimes get a bit of moisture on it or is that a likely culprit of issues?
This particular tail light when I took it out I noticed the plastic piece that is supposed to hold the wire close to it had broken off so the wire just kind of dangles around. It had rained recently and I did notice the black wire felt damp to the touch. Is it normal for this wire to sometimes get a bit of moisture on it or is that a likely culprit of issues?
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 21,325
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From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Lots of issues here with new owners.. IM trying not to be condescending.. here.. do you have a circuit tester? IM guessing not,., if you don't have the time or the 2.00 dollars for a bulb IM guessing you are a young kid with no ability to trouble shoot, and are asking more questions then needed.. you looked at the eliment and it looked good.. ???? looking good and being good are two different things.. if you hav a cheap tester you could check the continuity of the bulb. if it was an open circuit then there is your problem why go further.
next order of condescension.. test the socket.. a ten dollar tester will go along way to debug these simple issues. easily find at home depot, lowes harbor freight, sears. etc.
you do the simple stuff first.. like buy a bulb and see if it fixes the problem..
test the socket to see if it has power
if it has power then the only thing left is the bulb.
if the socket has lost its wiring integrity, that could be a problem. a wire clip will not effect the electricl integrity..
but since you don't know to test a bulb or the socket, I'm not sure you are capable of back tracing all the things that come before the socket, like the harness, the fuse and the fuse box integrity.
Good luck go buy a bulb. and a ten dollar tester.
Bill aka ET
next order of condescension.. test the socket.. a ten dollar tester will go along way to debug these simple issues. easily find at home depot, lowes harbor freight, sears. etc.
you do the simple stuff first.. like buy a bulb and see if it fixes the problem..
test the socket to see if it has power
if it has power then the only thing left is the bulb.
if the socket has lost its wiring integrity, that could be a problem. a wire clip will not effect the electricl integrity..
but since you don't know to test a bulb or the socket, I'm not sure you are capable of back tracing all the things that come before the socket, like the harness, the fuse and the fuse box integrity.
Good luck go buy a bulb. and a ten dollar tester.
Bill aka ET
Last edited by Evil-Twin; Aug 4, 2017 at 12:17 AM.
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It was more a question given the possibility that the wire may be bad. No, I don't really like working on cars. I would be curious what bulb on a stock C5 is $200? These cars pre-dated HID bulbs and I have no intention to put that stuff on here. I was working in the dark, fighting the bugs and the sticky rainforest like weather (No garage here, I'm in the driveway). I was more interested in testing out these new security screws I bought, rather than stumbling in the dark doing that again to get the bulb out I'll just wait until the morning but figured I would prompt the question here. Yeah, if I had thought it out in advance I'd already have another bulb and I'd put a meter on the contacts on the wiring to make sure it's getting voltage but pardon if I may have forgotten after a long day.
I've worked on vintage stereo gear before, but car wiring is another whole ballpark though and there's plenty of overly complicated stereos I wouldn't touch. I've taken care of many issues on this Z06 that the previous owners just let go (rear main seal leak, leaky differential, shoddy installation of aftermarket shifter, no one removed the column lock or skip shift, old Delco battery still installed, etc.). I appreciate your angle, but don't think you have a full picture of me from what little I post
I've worked on vintage stereo gear before, but car wiring is another whole ballpark though and there's plenty of overly complicated stereos I wouldn't touch. I've taken care of many issues on this Z06 that the previous owners just let go (rear main seal leak, leaky differential, shoddy installation of aftermarket shifter, no one removed the column lock or skip shift, old Delco battery still installed, etc.). I appreciate your angle, but don't think you have a full picture of me from what little I post
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,155
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From: Fort Worth Texas
If you have pre dated HID bulbs it could be a resistor. Back then that's what was used. Just a guess . Your best bet is to listen and PM evil twin a lot of knowledge and he will pin point your problem . Good luck MAGA
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 21,325
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From: small town in S.E Pa. PA
St. Jude Donor '03-'04
since its in a closed loop circuit and the other three are working, its either the bulb or the socket. since that bulb is a double filament bulb. chances are slim that both elements are bad so a check of both elements.. the second element ( the brake and turn signal element could be tested by turning on the flashers. If either element is working but not both then its the bulb. or te4sting the bulb shows continuity then its more than likely the socket.. which needs repair. you can also take the bulb out of the suspected socket and put it in a known good socket. Naturally if it works in the known good socket the bulb is fine leaving the next step, the socket.
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Lest you all think I'm dumb, I know. My assumption going in was the bulb being fine. If it is just the bulb, duh. Since many have owned these cars for many years and know their way around them, I was simply checking to be sure that there wasn't a "oh, if just the inner tail light isn't working it's quite possible that you got water on this module" or something. I never knew anything about the column lock issues until I read about it here, thankfully before it ever presented a problem for me.
I've known of similar issues with other cars where the symptom nearly always has the same cause. One of my previous cars had a subwoofer that would work and sometimes not for no reason. It's a well known issue, bad solder joints from the factory on the wiring with the car's age. It's nice when it's the obvious stuff that can be simply fixed, but forums are best for figuring out the gremlins.
I've known of similar issues with other cars where the symptom nearly always has the same cause. One of my previous cars had a subwoofer that would work and sometimes not for no reason. It's a well known issue, bad solder joints from the factory on the wiring with the car's age. It's nice when it's the obvious stuff that can be simply fixed, but forums are best for figuring out the gremlins.
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I swapped the adjacent bulb in and now the other one was blinking too fast while the other (bad) bulb only had the low filament working. The bad one was a 3057, I tried another 3057 I had and it was totally dead. I put the original bad one back in and now it was totally dead, not even the low filament coming on. I tried a 3157 and a 3357 I had and both worked. I tried the 3057 again and now it was working, pulled it out and put it back in and dead again. So I just left the 3157 in there, some seemed to say the brightness was slightly different but I looked at it side by side with the other bulbs while in the lenses and it looked identical to me...
Considering a few days before my driver side front turn DRL/turn signal was only working on the low mode and not when I'd turn on my turn signal this is why I'm suspect of some intermittent electrical problem. I'll keep driving it for a bit and see if the DRL issue comes back, maybe it's the same weird problem with this one bulb. I've never had this kind of strange issue before. I guess if the passenger side one comes back then time to start looking at the wiring.
Considering a few days before my driver side front turn DRL/turn signal was only working on the low mode and not when I'd turn on my turn signal this is why I'm suspect of some intermittent electrical problem. I'll keep driving it for a bit and see if the DRL issue comes back, maybe it's the same weird problem with this one bulb. I've never had this kind of strange issue before. I guess if the passenger side one comes back then time to start looking at the wiring.
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From: Machineguns, because I don’t compromise
Personally, when one tail light bulb goes bad I change all of them at the same time since they are cheap.
The others are aged like the one that burnt out. Why dick around when its only $20 for them all and simple to do?
The others are aged like the one that burnt out. Why dick around when its only $20 for them all and simple to do?