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tail lights not working need fast help

buffblazer

buffblazer

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ok first off i gotta have this fixed by 6 tomorrow night so if possible i need the quickest and most information i can get because i wont be able to get on much to check for updates

its a 1989 toyota camry, had a brake light out in the truck section of the lights. i pulled the bulb out of its holder and part of the bulb stayed with the connector

after that i lost all tail lights and blew the fuse for the running lights
i replaced the fuse and have running lights for the side markers and licence plate

i have brake lights, and flashers

no tail lights at all.

i isolated the two bulbs that were burnt up away from the rest of the wiring harness by disconnecting the wiring connector and it still didnt fix it.

any help would be great i checked the fuses in the engine bay and the fuses under the dash and all are ok.

Is there a fuse somewhere else that im missing or did i screw something up? the wiring on the car aint the best but heck the lights were working until i pulled the bulb
 
Are the tail/brake lights the same bulb? Both NEW bulb?

Are they the old style (round socket) or new style (flat "plug in")?

The older styles, witha worn out socket can be put in backwards, Causing this problem.

Considering they worked before you replaced the bulb, I would assume that all the grounds/connections are sound. But It never hurts to check.

If all else fails, start chasing power, start at the socket for the taillights and move forward.
 
Camry have the bulb out indicator like my 89 Supra? Might have got cooked if so. the box should be around the drive side tail light or in the driver side fender. Also reseat the harness plugs for the tail lights. Check ALL the fuses again.
 
broncoman6524 said:
Are the tail/brake lights the same bulb? Both NEW bulb?

Are they the old style (round socket) or new style (flat "plug in")?

The older styles, witha worn out socket can be put in backwards, Causing this problem.

Considering they worked before you replaced the bulb, I would assume that all the grounds/connections are sound. But It never hurts to check.

If all else fails, start chasing power, start at the socket for the taillights and move forward.
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its the old style round lights, i didnt even get to replace the bulb because the holder is melted. when i pulled the bulb out is when the tail lights all went out, i figured maybe i was shorting to ground and it was possibly killing the rest of the lights. so i went ahead and just disconnected the entire light connecter from the rest of the wiring harness.

the weird thing is the bulbs for the rest of the lights are dual filament and the brake lights are working but not the tail lights, so i know the bulbs are good but some how i lost power to the taillights but not the brake lights

so i looked in the manual and it says there are seperate fuses for the tail lights and the brake light circut. and also a relay but i could not find the actual tail light fuse since the cover is missing so i just went ahead and pulled all the fuses and i still couldnt find it.

the fuse box is located on the driver side fron next to the brake pedal and next to the battery. anybody know where there is another fuse box on these cars?
 
Grim-Reaper said:
Camry have the bulb out indicator like my 89 Supra? Might have got cooked if so. the box should be around the drive side tail light or in the driver side fender. Also reseat the harness plugs for the tail lights. Check ALL the fuses again.
Click to expand...

the manual says its got a bulb out indicator but its not showing up when you have the car on, so im guessing the bulb is burnt out.

the box your talking about, is it a fuse box for the taillights?
 
also since i dont have the covers, anybody with a 89 camery or anyone who has worked on them know where the tail light fuse is located specificly
 
buffblazer said:
the manual says its got a bulb out indicator but its not showing up when you have the car on, so im guessing the bulb is burnt out.

the box your talking about, is it a fuse box for the taillights?
Click to expand...

Its the ECM for the bulb out feature. Green about 3x4 inches about an inch thick. After thinking about it I don't think that is the problem. The dash indicator I think is only for brake lights.

There is a fuse box under the hood on most Toyota's as well as the kick panel box. The Kick panel box on most Toys is where the running lights are At least both my 86 4 Runner and my 89 Supra I use to have had it there. The under hood usualy has stuff like fuel pump, Alternator cooling fans etc but still worth a check.

Trace the wires for the tail lights back. Somewhere there is a plug either on them or near them. Somewhere back there will also be a ground wire to the body. Might be that when you were replacing the socket the wires got wiggled and lost connection around there. Its possible that the brake lights could pull a ground back through the running lights and function but not have the tail lights work becasue of the bad ground.
 
well i ended up figuring out by testing my system that the previous owner was a dip**** and wired the lights all goofy, so i found out the lights will work if a bulb is burnt out but the taillights wont work if you disconnect the connector for any of the 4 seperate connectors it kills power to all the taillights because now its connected in series and not a parallel circut. and the melted bulb when i pulled it out caused the power wire for the taillight to ground out in the socket.

so i need to get a new bulb socket thingy and then it will be all good to go,

damn idiots custom wiring it the way they want.
 
ya im not even gonna try and figure out what the reason was behind cutting and jumping wires in just gonna get the tail lights working and they can screw with it if they want.
 
buffblazer said:
well i ended up figuring out by testing my system that the previous owner was a dip**** and wired the lights all goofy, so i found out the lights will work if a bulb is burnt out but the taillights wont work if you disconnect the connector for any of the 4 seperate connectors it kills power to all the taillights because now its connected in series and not a parallel circut. and the melted bulb when i pulled it out caused the power wire for the taillight to ground out in the socket.

so i need to get a new bulb socket thingy and then it will be all good to go,

damn idiots custom wiring it the way they want.
Click to expand...
See, when I first read this, it sounded like they were in series, but I know that from the factory they are not wired this way. So I didn't post up, as I didn't believe that anyone would be foolish enough to do it that way. Glad you found the issue, just not sure what the PO was thinking when they set it up.
 
ya that had me confused to i was thinking how the heck could it kill all the lights. so its a birds nest in the trunk so i said screw it the lights are working live with it im not gonna screw it up again by touching the wrong wire and the car blows up like some james bond death trap
 
Now it could be that the PO tried to bypass the bulb out circuit, and didn't have any real knowledge of how to wire a vehicle. That would seem to make sense in a why they did it kind of way. Still would make a complete rats nest of the wiring, and be very difficult to troubleshoot, as you found out.
 
i was told the reason he wired it that was was because apparently the bulbs were getting hot after 30 mins of being on and burning up. so what he did to fix it i have no clue.
 
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