Tail light / Brake light issue...

Richard 34A · 07-14-2008, 02:55 PM

Seems like everytime I take the MH out for the weekend, I come back with more things to check out on this forum.

I discovered that when the tailights are on, the passenger side bulb is a lot brighter than the drivers' side, almost like the brake light is on. But when I activate the brake lights, the passenger side is a little dimmer than the drivers' side. I assume that there must be some sort of short or ground problem; would this be a correct assumption? And since it's the passenger side rear light that is acting up, would this be where I start? I believe the dealer sometime back did a repair of some sort and I think the rear bumper and light was removed...

Richard 34A · 07-14-2008, 02:55 PM

Seems like everytime I take the MH out for the weekend, I come back with more things to check out on this forum.

I discovered that when the tailights are on, the passenger side bulb is a lot brighter than the drivers' side, almost like the brake light is on. But when I activate the brake lights, the passenger side is a little dimmer than the drivers' side. I assume that there must be some sort of short or ground problem; would this be a correct assumption? And since it's the passenger side rear light that is acting up, would this be where I start? I believe the dealer sometime back did a repair of some sort and I think the rear bumper and light was removed...

Sammie · 07-14-2008, 03:03 PM

Could it be that the dealer when reinstalling the tailight got the wires reversed. Usually the larger filament in the bulb is the brakelight/turnsignal and the smaller filament is the tailight.

Steve

smlranger · 07-14-2008, 03:13 PM

Richard:

Check/verify all your grounds before anything else. When I was having weird problems with my toad lighting (I was frying Hoppy tailight converters with regularity), it turned out to be a loose ground connection in the male plug at the toad connection.

Richard 34A · 07-14-2008, 03:45 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Sammie:
Could it be that the dealer when reinstalling the tailight got the wires reversed. Usually the larger filament in the bulb is the brakelight/turnsignal and the smaller filament is the tailight.

Steve </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hello Sammie;

If you knew my local dealer, you'd know that anything is quite possible. In the process of pulling off part of the bumper, I thought that maybe any electrical items removed were simply pulled apart at the connectors, so re-installation would be straight-forward, but who knows what was done.

I'm going to remove the lens and check out the bulb and connections, look for a ground, and go from there. Hopefully it will be something simple that I can figure out. Otherwise, it's back to the dealer and since the repair was more than six months ago, I'm sure I'll be pulling out the checkbook once more...

John Hilley · 07-14-2008, 05:02 PM

I think Sammie might be right. The connector might not be polarized, so that it could go together 180 degrees off, or maybe they spliced wires backwards.

AFChap · 07-14-2008, 06:07 PM

It is not supposed to be possible to put the bulb in backwards, but one of mine was, and it was doing exactly as described -- would be the same result as reversing the wire connections.

Richard 34A · 07-14-2008, 06:23 PM

Thanks everyone for the replies; gives me a place to start. Probably can't take a look until this weekend but will post if I figure it out...

Hikerdogs · 07-15-2008, 05:59 AM

I had to replace a tail light on our coach a couple years ago. When I removed the assembly I could see there were 2 identical yellow wires going to the tail light/brake light socket. The only identification was a different number printed on each of the wires. They were butt connected to the wires from the socket.

If the dealer wasn't paying attention it would be easy to switch the wires.