Rear taillights out, help!

[jepherz]

Hey guys, I had some lights go out on me on the road. My dash lights, illumination/foglight switch backlights, cigarette surround light and rear tail-lights. I got pulled over before I noticed that the rear tail-lights weren't working and the copper told me to continue on with my hazards (Nice guy!).

Anyways, I'm 4 hours away from home at the track this weekend, so my debugging tools are limited and I don't have any manuals with me. I already checked all of the fuses under the dash and they were all good. Anyone have an idea what is wrong?

 

[Terry Posten]

Are you sure your REAR tail lights are out /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif?

Sounds like a grounding issue to me if your fuses are OK. If you have a meter, pull a tail light plug out and set your meter to VDC. Stick the ground lead to the chassis and use the positive lead and check for voltage on each of the pins.


"Long shot"
If you have power on one of the wires with metering to chassis, then you can temporarily run a new ground to a tail light and it should be OK for the trip back home.

That actually may "back-feed" ground allowing most/all lights to work.

 

[Terry Posten]

If you don't have +12 on the feed wires, you may have a faulty head light switch.

 

[toybreaker]

2nd fuse in from the fender in the front fuse box, 10amp (I *believe*) is the tailight fuse.

 

[jepherz]

Thanks boys! I'll check that fuse this morning, John

 

[Hertz]

Everything else work?

Do you have any gauges wired up? It would be more likely that something that you put in (sorry) shorted out, such as a gauge.

 

[jepherz]

Well, turned out that the fuse John suggested was blown. I replaced it and the dash still didn't work, and the tail lights were showing very dimly at 10v. I had removed my steering column because I was copying the quickener for someone, and maybe I have a pinched wire? Hopefully I can take it out and check tomorrow.

 

[jepherz]

By the way, the vr4 held up on some expensive German machinery. My Instructor with a turbo AWD 911 (650 whp) was very impressed!