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Anonymous Posted on Nov 19, 2011

Headlight switch on makes tail light dim

Brake lights work fine. tail lights work fine. however, when head lights on, and brake peddle pushed, the right rear light works, but the left tail light dims.

  • 2 more comments 
  • Anonymous Nov 19, 2011

    took left tail light apart. all looked good is double type bulb. problem is same. ADDITIONAL ISSUE DISCOVERED left blinker light is about only half the brightness of right blinker and it is the "other" wire in the left bulb that gets half lite. Once again, when the head lights are on, the left brack light just glows when brake peddle pushed. in addition to the new issue....

  • Cosku Arsiray
    Cosku Arsiray Nov 19, 2011

    can you please tell me what type of lights do you have. sockets for individual bulbs(like old cars have JEEP, DODGE) or whole assembly for all bulbs which has pcb like power bus on it. (newer cars, BMW,BENZ)

  • Anonymous Nov 19, 2011

    97 dogde truck just a socket

  • Cosku Arsiray
    Cosku Arsiray Nov 19, 2011

    i am sure there is a bad ground problem. tail light of that side must have a bad ground. i think this way becasue when tail light is on (with headlight), problems arise.

    did you check the harness of that side? are there any burned or crimpled wires? i faced sime problem on my old nissan pathfinder some time ago. i had to re solder wires and isolate them one by one. i bet ground wire for those bulbs are problematic.
    you may try to use crocodiles to have ground from a metla part of your car and you can try to "supply" gorund to gorund wires of individual bulbs to see a change.

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Cosku Arsiray

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  • Posted on Nov 19, 2011
Cosku Arsiray
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There must be a short circuit which powers tail lights and brake lights. probably you have a dual filament bulbs which have both brake and tail light together. check for bulb, socket/or bulb housing and harness of that light.

  • 1 more comment 
  • Anonymous Nov 26, 2011

    Thank you Coska. You gave me the idea and the guts to do it. I see now what was wrong. It's simple....... after you know how !!!!!!

    There are 3 wires running from the light plug, plus two wires from the back up light that go into the wiring harness back thru the system.

    I figured which one was the ground. IT IS NOT THE GREEN ONE!! That one got me a spark!! Out of the three, It is the small black one. I scraped the wire and grounded it to the truck. EVERYTHING WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I cut the wire, drilled a hole for a screw and done, a 10 cent fix, not $400 to $500, which was the estimate / guess from the dealer for a new wire harness install

  • Anonymous Nov 26, 2011

    I'm sorry, it's Cosku

  • Cosku Arsiray
    Cosku Arsiray Nov 26, 2011

    i think i deserve thumbs up this time :)

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