1998 Nissan Sentra: A) Service Engine Soon Codes; and B) Tail Light Wiring Question...
First, the wires you plucked from the rear lights may be ground wires that corroded and fell out of their termination, or could be secondary wires that provide voltage to your tail parking lights.. and if you touched them to somewhere that had voltage going to it, which it sounds like what happened if sparks flew (or you may have touched a live wire to a ground), you may have sent a voltage spike that blew the dashboard lights out. Did you check all the fuses after the seeing the sparks?? I would suspect that you blew a fuse when that happened. What you need to do is get a volt meter to determine if the loose wires have voltage going to them when the light switch is on, or see if they have continuity to ground.. You say the brake lights work but not the tail lights, so maybe those loose wires either supply voltage to the tail lights, or could be the ground wires for the tail lights. A meter will let you know if they either have voltage going to them or if they have continuity to ground. If you don't know how to do this, you should let someone who knows what they're doing check the wires as you may cause even more damage if you don't know what you're doing.......... I didn't look up your engine codes, but if you have one that has MAP/BAR , it could be that your MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor is bad. This will definitely cause the gas mileage to drop and could cause the engine to run bad..You need to have this vehicle checked for vacuum leaks too. Being that it's an older car, you could have cracked hoses or collapsed hoses causing a vacuum leaks which could also trip the MAP/BAR engine code. If your gas mileage is that bad, it sounds to me like the engine could use a good tune up. Replace air filter and PCV valve, plugs/wires etc. Check for bad or dirty sensors, vacuum lines etc need to be checked...You can have the codes cleared from the computer, but once you do that, the computer will just send the same codes and trip the check engine light again if you do not find and fix the problem causing this condition. Even when you repair the problems, the car will need to be driven for a bit before the computer will allow all the emission parameters to reset and then give you the green light to have the car inspected. Simply clearing the codes without fixing the problems will not allow the vehicle to pass an inspection. The computer needs to reset after the repairs have been done, and then you can take it in for an inspection..Sorry I can't be of more help, but this should give you somewhere to start..Have a look at your vacuum lines, clean or replace the MAP and MAF (mass air flow) sensors (there are you tube vid's on how to do this) and get a meter to see if those loose wires have voltage to them or if they have continuity to ground. Then maybe you can figure out where they came from. I suspect they may have pulled out of a rear light wiring harness connector or a light bulb socket. Good luck!
Thank you for your replies. I have found the fuse panel. Brake fuse was very easy to see. I checked it, and it looked good. Service station had checked the bulbs and said it is not a bulb issue. So, now it is not a bulb or fuse issue. Will have to look deeper. Hopefully not too much deeper. Will pull out the tester tonight to check and see if the socket is getting power. Might have to shop around a bit to find that part, if in fact it is the problem.
I have 3 days to fix this!!!
Used the tester, and it shows no power getting to the bulbs. Didn't notice this problem before today--and hubby follows me driving in his car from time to time. He would have noticed. It seems kind of fishy to us that it was working fine until today, but could be a coincidence of timing. Still, the problem is there, and we need to figure this puzzle out. Any experience with this??? Thanks!
Check for loose wires at the bulb sockets, A break in the wires, A loose ground wire, Corrosion in bulb sockets ,Or get a new bulb socket end try it, If all that doesn,t work take it in to a auto electric shop to be repaired (Properly)
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