I have no taillights or brake lights on my 71 cutlass convertible. When I bought new bumpers and tail light housings and gaskets I replaced all the bulbs so they do work. I know this because when I was reinstalling my dash I was fumbling around all those wires under the dash and the tail lights came on and stayed on for about 30 minutes but while try to get them to turn of I noticed 2 things I still didn't have brake lights and there was a little switch with the light wire running to it and it was really warm to the touch. But I don't know anything about electrical issues on a car that is 11 years older than I am. HHHHEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPPPP also NO TURN SIGNAL IN THE BACK BUT I HAVE THEM IN THE FRONT AND I HAVE HAZZARDS IN THE FRONT AND BACK.

I know I put this in the wrong spot but nobody said anything in the electrical forum

 

1. Make sure the rear harness ground is connected to the side of the trunk latch post.
2. On the Drivers side, the main harness is should be clipped to the side of the inside deck support. Look closely; there is a metal clip that holds it there. If it's not connected you will have a poor ground.
3. Check to ensure the tail light pod wires are firmly pressed into the connecting harness.
4. Wiggle the main connector (by the DS rear). Pull it apart (there's a lock tab on the side you need to release with a small flatblade screwdriver) and check for any corrosion.

If everything is as you said, you also should have no side marker lights at the back either.

The wires you fumbled with under the dash may be the ones connected to the brake light switch. Did you rotate it or move the brake light switch?

Now maybe a silly question, but the tail lights on these cars are 1157 (double filament bulbs). Any chance at all you put in 1156 (single filament)? An 1156 will not give brake or dual voltage required for signals/flashers.

 

First, calm down. Next, check the turn signal relay. The hazards are on a seperate relay and will work if the turn signal relay is bad and they don't work. Now, if you ever feel anything hot in the electrical system disconnect the battery. Actually do that first whenever you do stuff like that. You'll avoid dead batteries and blown fuses too.

 

You mean "flasher."

- Eric

 

Flasher/relay - in this case it's the same thing really. And yes, I should have asked him to check his flasher first. Sort of thought that his lights were likely working properly before changing the rear bumper.

 

You know it's two completely different things, Allan, and this guy has very little knowledge about cars, so he needs to have things referred to by their correct names, or he will become totally confused.

- Eric

 

Well, so long as we don't start calling parts 'thingys' it should work out well in the end.

I just recently went through this on another members car. He also had replaced his rear bumper, but hadn't fiddled with anything under the dash. I did a continuity and voltage test on his rear harnesses (just in case the wires had broken when the bumper dropped). Turned out to be very low voltage because of corrosion and poor seating in the main rear harness connector. Cleaned it out with electrical contact cleaner and used some dialetric grease to help prevent further problems. Clipped it back into place and 'problem solved'. All tail lights, brake and signals worked as they should.

I agree that it can be a little intimidating when you've never done anything like this before. Hope it works out and it's something really simple as has been discussed.