hey guys. i was having problems with my tail-light after re-installing them after respray. problem is- all lights work fine. problem is when i turn the headlights on all lights still work fine, but when i press the brake all the tail-lights go out besides the left rear brake light. i took the car to auto elec today, and they gave me the, 'look pretty much everything needs to be replaced' -eg- all the globe holders etc etc. but i know before i took the lights out they were FINE. oh and he wanted to charge me 150bucks! **** off mate. so its definatly a grounding problem. i just dont know what that means. everyone says it and ive read it here in previous posts, 'grounding problem'. does that mean i have to ground the lights somewhere again? or its grounded somewhere its not? i got no idea. any help would be greatly appreciated as im sick of having to take the car home before it gets dark! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Find the black wire in the tail light harness and connect a wire to it and ground this will fix your problem, for some retarded reason all vl grounds are in the engine bay and over time the tail light earth stuffs up.

or you could bridge the wires from the working light for a temporary fix till you figure it out

thanks for the replies. ill try them out tommorow. if i brideged wire from the working tail-lights where would the bridge be from? - im going to try find the black wire in the harness and ground that. if not i might need more help. thanks again.

The entire harness can be unplugged from up under the boot channel on the drivers side. Make sure that plug is OK, and if you need to replace 'all' of the globe holders then just go and find a good second hand tail light loom and plug it in.

if worst comes to worst, get another boot loom from a wreckers and put it in. prolly cost you $20. (make sure its in good condition first though).

yeh its the ground for sure. ive seen that problem many times

Quote: Originally Posted by duz360 yeh its the ground for sure. ive seen that problem many times Too easy Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

hey guys. thanks for the idas everyone. i actually just cut the black wire just after the loom and ran it to a good ground in the boot. was hoping this would solve the problem but it didnt. the lights worked fine before i took the lights out. and its something real small i know it, and i dont want to take it back to the auto elecs cause they want to re-wire the boot and change everything, but i dont want to spend that money as its just my get around car. any more suggestons? thanks again could it be that somethings grounded where it shouldn be? oh yeh i relly have no ideas im just trying to think it out. its pretty much the loom which runs to each globe holder. im thinking the problem is globe holder related but i jus dun know what it is? anyone? this is one of the last things i have to fix up before i car is ready. right now im avoiding driving at night! pretty annoying.

Quote: Originally Posted by duz360 yeh its the ground for sure. ive seen that problem many times ???

have u checked the globe holders to see if they rusty inside as it might not be making proper connection, if any r rusty or broken get another loom and chop the globe holders off and join better 1's on oh and this may be a stupid question but do u have twin fillament globes in all brake/taillights? because they wont work properly without them

what i was talking about is bridging the left rear brake light earth or power wire and joining it to the other tail light. I did that when one om my parkers weren't working and they worked fine no probs. That's my 2 cents anyway

thanks for the replies. really appreciated. its saving me 150bucks by going to the auto elec! whats puzzling me the most is the fact everything worked completly fine. all i did was undo the wires to take the lights out then put them straight back in. could it be a fuse? dj i might try that bridging idea. as the left light works fine but the right one is the one that goes out.

i reckon its your globe holders... The metal contacts get corroded over time... pull them out and check their condition

You say it happened after a respray? Check that there isn't paint somewhere that it shouldn't be, like in a globe holder, in the plug for the tail light loom, etc.

not that it helps.... mine has a similar prob.... work fine normally. turn on lights and u press brake and the half the drivers side brake lights go out. its stupid... its been re wired and fixed by mechanics b4 and keeps comin back iv had it, cant justify lettin ppl try fix it when they dont do it right.... good luck..

ahaha thanks fellas. and thanks stooge86! yeh not sure what it is. might be the globe holders i might get the new loom and stuff from the wreckers if no one else can think of anything. there are a few globe holders that are a tad rusty, but it confuses me why they worked fine before the took them out. oh and they work perfectly fine until i turn the lights on a press the brake. real weird. ill scope it out more this weekend