Guest Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 my taillights and license plate lights are all out. the turn signals work and so does the brake lights. i tried replacing the fuse but that didnt do it. the bulbs are all good too. HELP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Peters Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 The turn signal and brake lights use the same filament in the light bulbs. If you look at the bulbs you will see a double filament in each bulb. By the same token, if I am not mistaken, the tail lights and tag light all come back on the same wire and then are split to each light. I am not sure if the tail lights are on a seperate fuse than the front parking lights but this is the first thing I would check. If all fuses are good you will need to start tracing the wiring to find the problem. Rob ------------------ To access my website click on the picture or link below. My Two Girls http://www.cardomain.com/id/robsmodelamonte Go Car or Show Car, it doesn't matter, you are welcome here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarchieB Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 Are you talking about the white reverse lights in the bumper or your the red tail lights that come on when the car is in drive and the headlights are on. I you are talking about the red I would try changing the bulbs for the couple bucks b/c i know on newer cars that the regular tail lights can burn out before the break lights even though they are the same bulb. I had this on my 98 Malibu and thought at the time that it was weired, but it worked! [This message has been edited by MarchieB (edited 06-26-2003).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 the bulbs are not burned out. i am sure of that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Hey Hey 402 what you need is a test light and wire diagram (so you know which wire are your tail light wire (I an not trying to be a wise *** )find a good groung for the groung side of the test light and stick tie wire that the diagram tell you is for the tail light you keep doing that untill the light comes onand that were you are good just look for what every might be wront from there to the bulb I hope this helps you Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 You may have lost the ground to these lights. I don't remember where it is at. I was working on my front park lights today and at first I had no ground. I could barely see a glow from the fillament. Touched to ground and they lit right up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 the wierd thing is....i also noticed today that the parking lights are out too! again, the signals work, but no parking lights. oh well, i ripped my dash off tonight so i'll have more room to work with. guess i'll just re-wire them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Peters Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 I would have thought ground too except the brake lights and the turn signals work. Since the base of the lamp gets the ground from the lamp socket sides and the brake and the turn signals are working then it can not be the ground. As I stated before, I would first check the fuse for the parking lights and start checking the wiring from there if the fuse is good. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 It is quite possible that the turn signals and parking lights use a different ground because they are different systems. If you have turn signals then you probably have brake lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallaby Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 it could even be the headlight switch. The first notch turns on the running lights and the second notch turns on the headlamps. I tried to figure out the circuit from the factory wiring diagram, but they drew it poorly and must have used different artists for each section of the drawings. Here is what I DO know: The side markers and the tail lights (front & rear)and the license lights all get their power from one source. Each of the bulbs has its' own ground. Odds are good that you haven't lost all eleven grounds at once. Start by confirming that you have power on both sides of the fuse in the fuse box. You may need to pull on the headlight switch to get power to the fuse. From there, the diagram pretty much shows a single wire going forward, and a single wire going rearward. They get to the corner area of the car and then split to service multiple bulbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Peters Posted June 29, 2003 Share Posted June 29, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by George Lines:It is quite possible that the turn signals and parking lights use a different ground because they are different systems. If you have turn signals then you probably have brake lights. George, The base of the lamp is the ground and since the parking lights, brake light and turn signal all use the same bulb, they are not using seperate grounds. Wallaby makes a good point about the side marker lights. You didn't state if the side marker lights were working and since they come on when the head lights and parking lights come on, they should also be on. Your problem is on the positive (+) side or also known as the supply side of the circit and not the negative (-) or ground side. The reason I say this is because the negative side of the circuit is the chassis ground. The chassis ground comes from the negative side of the battery connecting to the chassis and the metal of the body. This makes every metal part of the body, engine and chassis a ground or negative (-) return to the battery. Think of a DC circuit as a circle. To complete the circle, or circuit, the voltage must make it all the way around the circle to work. Now let's put a battery into the circle. At the start of the circle you connect up to the positive terminal of the battery. Now if you open the circle and you connect the bottom button of the light bulb to the line from the line from the positive terminal and the base of the lamp to the other open side of the circle and then complete the circle by connecting to the negative side of the battery, the light will come on because you have completed the circle. Now if you open that circle at any point (by having a fuse blow), you now you have broken the circle and the light won't work. Now back to Wallaby's suggestion of turning on the headlights or parking lights and checking for voltage on both sides of the fuse. This is what you need to do. If you don't have voltage on either side of the fuse it could be in the headlight switch or where the positive voltage comes to the headlight switch. If you have voltage on one side of the fuse but not on the other it is a bad fuse. If you have voltage on both sides of the fuse then the open part of the circuit will have to be found by tracing where the wire comes from the fuse box and splits to all the lights. I hope I have not confused you by this explination but I tried to make it as simple as possible. Wiring problems can be a challenge even if you have a diagram and know what you are doing so do what you can from our suggestions and if you can't find the problem you may need to get some help. Rob ------------------ To access my website click on the picture or link below. My Two Girlshttp://www.cardomain.com/id/robsmodelamonte Go Car or Show Car, it doesn't matter, you are welcome here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 29, 2003 Share Posted June 29, 2003 Quote: <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Rob Peters: George, The base of the lamp is the ground and since the parking lights, brake light and turn signal all use the same bulb, they are not using seperate grounds.</font> I have been re-assembling my Monte after that paint job. I was testing the lights even before installing them. I had the tail lights working even before inserting them into the extensions, therefore they have a ground wire coming from the socket to somewhere. The front park lightes were different and I had to touch the bulb socket to the car before they worked. The side marker sockets are mounted in plastic, so they have to have a wire going to ground somewhere. Also the park and turn/brake use different filaments in the same bulb. That means they are using different circuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Peters Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by George Lines: George, The base of the lamp is the ground and since the parking lights, brake light and turn signal all use the same bulb, they are not using seperate grounds. I have been re-assembling my Monte after that paint job. I was testing the lights even before installing them. I had the tail lights working even before inserting them into the extensions, therefore they have a ground wire coming from the socket to somewhere. The front park lightes were different and I had to touch the bulb socket to the car before they worked. The side marker sockets are mounted in plastic, so they have to have a wire going to ground somewhere. Also the park and turn/brake use different filaments in the same bulb. That means they are using different circuits. George, You are correct that if the socket is mounted in plastic there would need to be two wires a ground wire and positive or supply wire. You are correct that the parking lights and brake/turn signal use different filaments in the same bulb so there would be two wires going to them, one for the parking light and one for the brake/turn but both of these filaments would use the same ground which would be the base of the lamp. Since I think these bases are also mounted into plastic there would have to be a wire running from the base of these sockets to a chassis ground. I think the point I was trying to make above is this. Since the parking lights and the brake/turn signals use the same bulb and different fialments they are using the same ground which is the base of the lamp and since the brake and turn signals are working but the parking lights are not it can not be a bad ground in this case. I work with DC circuits on a daily basis and have wired enough trailer hitches and worked on numerous wiring problems on rear lamps that I would almost guarantee that this problem is not a bad ground. I know a bad ground is frequently the cause of lamps not working but I don't think this is true in this case. Rob ------------------ To access my website click on the picture or link below. My Two Girlshttp://www.cardomain.com/id/robsmodelamonte Go Car or Show Car, it doesn't matter, you are welcome here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 Rob, I'm not trying to prove you wrong, just trying to help the guy with ideas. I finally got out my book and looked at the schematic. The front park/turn uses the light base as ground. "All" the back lights go to the same wire that goes to ground. Yes, all grounds go through the body/frame/battery. So ground is not the problem. All park/tail lights go to the light switch. I just saw something. All park/tail/marker etc. go through or make a connection at the firewall connector. That has to be where your problem is. You need to take the connector appart and check it out. It may be corroded, burnt or something. "All" those wires are brown. 1 brown wire goes to the light switch It's morning and I got the book out again. All rear (brown) wires go to the flat, rear connector and from there to the same post as the front (brown) on the light switch. So, you may have a bad connection at the light switch or the switch is bad. ???? Good Luck! [This message has been edited by George Lines (edited 06-30-2003).] [This message has been edited by George Lines (edited 06-30-2003).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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