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Brake Light Woes

T

TheRock249

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 21, 2002
Messages
192
Location
Nashville, TN
My rear passenger brake/turn signal is dead. I bought two replacement bulbs, 1157 i beleive.

I put one in while in the parking lot. Turned on hazard lights...works, but two or three clicks later, the bulb burns out. No big deal, i put in the other new bulb. It does the same thing.

Figuring there was too much current running to the bulb, i figured a fuse was blown. The fuse for the brake lights was fine. I am now confused as to what could cause one bulb to burn out that quick, but not the other. Any ideas?
 
Inspect the light housing for water build up.

Also, the most common cause for quickly blown bulbs is excess oil on the bulbs (from your hands)

If there is no water in the housing, and no frayed wiring at the connector, I would suspect that it simpy blew and your two replacement were handled by hand on the bulb and caused THEM to blow, too.

A blown fuse would create NO current flow, not an excessive amount.
 
Ray said:
.....
Also, the most common cause for quickly blown bulbs is excess oil on the bulbs (from your hands)
....
Click to expand...
Wear rubber (surgical) gloves. It also protects you should the bulb "accidentally" break when you are installing it. CVS sells them (gloves) in a box of 50 for $8.
 
check the wiring for any breaks in the insulation. If bare wires touch metal, it could short out causing a blown bulb.
 
ill have to try again with some more bulbs... Ive known that you shouldnt touch the bulb with your hands, but have never had problems with it since ive changed many brake lights and head lights. Hopefully its just my hands.

If it still doesnt work, ill get back to ya. Thanks.
 
True, but his lights are burning out, which would mean if it's shorting, the fuse should be blowing, if the fuse isn't, it is probably the wrong amperage, which if that was true, the wire would fry out if the fuse didn't blow. The fuse should be blowing 1st, not the light. Like the previous stated, check for water and breaks, also check to see what the stock bulb's wattage was, and make sure your replacement bulbs are the same. I know this website, it lists 2 wattages for fog lamps, but not for turn/brake signals. This site is a really great resource too
svtspecs.php
. Another thought just came into my mind, try taking a multimeter and testing the power and make sure your getting the write voltage, I think it should be 12v. Not sure, may want to find a manual or something. Was the vehicle ever in an accident? Without further information, that's about as much as I can think of....
 
1. Handling incandescent bulbs with your bare hands does NOT cause problems. That particular caution is typically needed for higher-wattage halogens or high pressure vapor lamps. An 1157's envelope cannot get hot enough to blister the glass envelope and cause teh bulb to fail.

2. There is no way an external short circuit can cause the bulb to fail. The filament is a "built-in" current limiter by design.

I'd suspect cheap bulbs.....
 
I think you're right about the cheap bulbs. More often than not, the vibrations from normal driving really cause problems with inexpensive bulbs. I try to stick to name brands (Sylvania). I just picked up a set of 1157LL (long life) bulbs and they have been fine for close to a month. I would really expect years of operation our of one set.

Try some new bulbs and see what happens.
 
well i bought 2 new bulbs from autozone today, 1157LL. For some reason, they still did the same thing. I used gloves this time, so my fingers could not have caused it.

I am fairly positive that there is no water in the tail light housing. Only variable I can think of is that its been pretty cold here the last couple days, upper teens and 20's. I dont know what to do about it now.
 
I had a problem a while back with one side constantly blowing bulbs.

I'd put a new one it and it would work fine while I stared at it. Close the little flap and be on my way. BAM. burned out again.

Finally, I put a new bulb in and this time left the little flapper door open to make sure the wires coming out of the back of the connector didn't get mashed. Never did blow again.

Also....I'd stick a meter on the socket contacts where the bulb goes and hit the brakes. Shouldn't see anything over your battery voltage. If you do, something is fishy.
 
Are the bulbs actually burning out? I had the same problem with the same passenger side rear tail lamp, I could get the bulb to start working again just by moving it in the connector.

I ended up replacing both the bulb holder, the connector on the back of it, and the connector on the wiring harness, and I haven't had any problems since. Knock on wood. All the parts are available from Ford you just need to find a good parts guy.
 
TheRock249 said:
well i bought 2 new bulbs from autozone today, 1157LL. For some reason, they still did the same thing. I used gloves this time, so my fingers could not have caused it.

I am fairly positive that there is no water in the tail light housing. Only variable I can think of is that its been pretty cold here the last couple days, upper teens and 20's. I dont know what to do about it now.
Click to expand...
Might be the wiring loom near the rear seat. Push the rear seatbacks down and locate the wiring loom by the bottom of seatbacks. The wiring has been known to chaff (due to the seatbacks being pushed down) and then cause wiring issues for the rear lamps.

Read this.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/s...d=allposts&Main=856349&Search=true#Post857435
 
Last edited:
SVTGT350 said:
Are the bulbs actually burning out? I had the same problem with the same passenger side rear tail lamp
Click to expand...

So, you are saying that it would stop functioning, but if you were to move it to the other side, or remove and re-insert it, it would work again? That it wasn't actually BLOWN, it just stopped flashing?
 
Ray said:
So, you are saying that it would stop functioning, but if you were to move it to the other side, or remove and re-insert it, it would work again? That it wasn't actually BLOWN, it just stopped flashing?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the blinkers have separate relays, I think they do, but not exactly sure..... Someone find the hanes manual, or Mitchell on demand software.... If their are separate relays, you should be able to swap them and see if your problem switches sides, I'll look into it more when I get time, I don't right now since I have to go to work, if I remember I'll look tonight.
 
check the connection of the bulb in the socket. that happened to me on my drivers side. i kept getting pulled over for it. i just wedged a piece of wood in between the socket and the bulb and works fine till i go to the yard to get a new socket.
 
ok i checked on it a bit today:

The bulb itself is still lighting, its just really really dim... The taillight housing is intact and dry. The wires under the back seat seem to be fine.

As for the contacts, it will have to wait til tomorrow.
 
Ray said:
Inspect the light housing for water build up.

Also, the most common cause for quickly blown bulbs is excess oil on the bulbs (from your hands)

If there is no water in the housing, and no frayed wiring at the connector, I would suspect that it simpy blew and your two replacement were handled by hand on the bulb and caused THEM to blow, too.

A blown fuse would create NO current flow, not an excessive amount.
Click to expand...

you know the socket where hte bulb goes? That's probably got rust and corrosion all over it. Dry the inside of the housing with some bounty, soak up that water, spray wd-40 all over that socket, then put the bulb in but dont plug the assembly back in. Test it with flashers, then turn signals, once you see it blink, keep the flashers on and install it back. It's not the bulbs, its water and rust build up.
 
ok so far, nothing has worked. I pulled the driver side bulb out, which works fine, and switched bulbs, and it worked. So, the bulbs are not the problem.

I followed the wiring around, trying to find a ground. I think one goes to the trunk latch area. Other than that, i could not find any others.

The contacts in the bulb socket seem to be fine.

Is there more than one fuse i would need to check besides the one in under the console?

Also, I can hear a little clicking noise randomly coming from under the glove box, like some kind of relay is clicking on, then off again. Don't know if this is related, but thought id throw it out there.
 
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