Taillight Grounding Problem

[94firebird]

My taillights are not working properly on my 94 Firebird. I know it is definately a grounding problem within the lightbulb sockets. From what I hear this is quite common among all of the older style bulb sockets. My ground wires are ok, but my problem is the part where the ground wire connects to the grounding shell in the socket. From searching around, I've found that this could be caused by corrosion in the connection between the ground wire and the shell.

If any of you have had this problem before, It would be very helpful if you could give me some advice as to how I should go about fixing this. Thanks

[Johnyd2]

i had a similiar problem with my 97 3.8 camaro, i dunnno if it is exactly the same as yours tho. The brake light was out and the bulb was still good, the metal inside of the bulb holder was corrided and rusty like a s.o.b. I went to the dealership and got a whole new piece that came with about 6 inches of extra wire coming out of the socket. I cut the old one out and wired the new one in. Took ten minutes, wire cutters, plyers and 3 plastic wire covers/connetors.

[95TransAm]

I've never had this problem before, but I can imagine how I would start to diagnose it.

Even though your sure it's a grounding problem, check to make sure you have power. You can backprobe connectors using t-pins. They sell the at walmart, kmart, whatever in the sewing section. Take the t-pin, and carefully, backprobe the wire connection in to the connectors. You can set a digital multimeter to volts, and put the power on the t-pin, and ground the other lead. If there is power, check the connector for continuity. Set the meter to read ohms, and check the connector. You can do this by backprobing the power and ground wires coming from the connector, and putting your leads on both t-pins. Do this when no power is supplied to the light, and check. If there is an OL or high ohm reading, than your problem lies in the connector. You can either replace this, or try and clean or repair it. Its most likely the contacts being either corroded or loose. Do whatever you need to do to try and fix this. If you have continuity, check your ground side for either a voltage drop or high resistance. Do this by backprobing the ground side of the connector, place a lead on this t-pin, and the other to ground. You should have no voltage drop on the ground. The ohm reading should either be zero, 0.1, 0.2 ohms....somewhere around there. If everything checks out ok, than the problem probably lies in a loose wire. If you want to, you can try and repair the wire (if it's in a connector is when it gets fun). The easier method would be to replace it.

If I was looking at my tail lights right now I could be more precise, but I'm just going off the top of my head on how to diagnose/fix this.

[95TransAm]

i had a similiar problem with my 97 3.8 camaro, i dunnno if it is exactly the same as yours tho. The brake light was out and the bulb was still good, the metal inside of the bulb holder was corrided and rusty like a s.o.b. I went to the dealership and got a whole new piece that came with about 6 inches of extra wire coming out of the socket. I cut the old one out and wired the new one in. Took ten minutes, wire cutters, plyers and 3 plastic wire covers/connetors.

If this is the same johnnyd2 that I've grown up with....

WHAT IS UP MAN!

Didn't realize you were also a part of this site. Of course, ever since I've gone off to school, I never get a chance to go on line anymore with the whole lack of computer situation and what not.

[redws6]

i had a similiar problem with my 97 3.8 camaro, i dunnno if it is exactly the same as yours tho. The brake light was out and the bulb was still good, the metal inside of the bulb holder was corrided and rusty like a s.o.b. I went to the dealership and got a whole new piece that came with about 6 inches of extra wire coming out of the socket. I cut the old one out and wired the new one in. Took ten minutes, wire cutters, plyers and 3 plastic wire covers/connetors.

exactly what i did. never had a problem since.

[94firebird]

Thanks for the tips

I have used a light probe to test for power at the connector in the trunk, and everything worked perfect. I didn't have a voltmeter or anything, but I think I'll go get my aunt's this week and use it to figure some stuff out.
My dad also came up with a good plan to make our own ground wire, and wedge the stripped end in between the socket and bulb, and see if that gives me any luck, if so, then I'll know its the grounds that are the problem, then Ill have to find a way to Solder the ground leads directly to the shell inside.

I did take a wire brush and get all the rust and corrosion out of the inside of the socket, but its the stuff that you cant see or get to easily thats messing me up.

The sockets with the 6 inch leads at the dealer run 55 bucks a pop, and I'm not about to drop 220 on fixing the damn taillights.

In the end I think it will just take some time to diagnose properly and try a few methods to fix it.

[94firebird]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

I just fixed it this afternoon. I took all the sockets out of the tallight lenses, then yanked the ground wires of the four gray sockets out, and cleaned up the ridiculous amount of corrosion off the connector using a jewler's file. Then I used the file to stick in to the hole where the wire goes, and got that nice and clean. Then a little dielectric grease, rebend the contacts into form, and stick it all back together. Works like night and day. Much safer too.....before i was depending on the high mount brake light to be my only "visibile" stoplight. As for blinkers, they didn't do much good during the daytime. Hopefully the dielectric grease will prevent any further corrosion, but now at least I know how to fix it in about half an hour.

Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem also. thanks