lighting woes

[pontiacgp]

On the left side of the fuse block there is the connector for the rear light harness. The brown wire is for the tail lights which I think is the second wire from the top. The wiring for the rear lighting is aluminum and that can corrode and break pretty easy. Check the brown wire at the fuse panel for power and if it has power then check the brown wire at the connection in the trunk. It it has no power in the trunk then it's broken in between he fuse block and the connection in the trunk. I had the brown wire corrode at the fuse block in my last GP. If someone had added a wiring harness for a trailer check where the spiced into the wires cause that will cause the single strand aluminum wire to break. Since your brake lights work it's not a ground problem since you brake lights use the same ground as your tail lights...

 

[malibujustin]

Will do...I read that somewhere else on here or somewhere. Would that cause the park lights or front turn signal lights to light up when brakes are applied? Some previous owner spliced some wires, maybe that one, to put in some kind of ridiculous bright red tube light under the seats...ugh. that I didn't see. May have spliced that wire. I guess I will still check all the grounds also. We had a blizzard here in sc...a grand total of 1 in of snow!! Thanks again to all of the replies. I will check all of them when we thaw!!

 

[ed1948]

Bad grounds cause strange symptoms. I had a 75 Scirocco with the quad front lights and when the lights were on all 4 were on dimly until I cleaned and tightened the grounds.

I'm hoping for a good snowfall Tuesday - I need to get extra snowplowing cash to pay for my Monte.

 

[malibujustin]

Thanks. I am going to also check the grounds along with the other suggestions. You can have the snow!!! Haha. Not use to it way down here, but if you are in Toronto I guess you are very accustomed to it. Keep on snow plowing for the Monte!!!

 

[airboatgreg]

Have you checked ALL of the fuses not only for being good but also for power? Aluminum wiring was an issue and that was good advice. I am leaning to bad turn signal switch and another issue for the tail lights. Don't over complicate. Tackle one issue at a time

 

[malibujustin]

I will check fuses again and the aluminum wire for sure. It's been really messy here the last couple of days. I will surely check all the great suggestions from you guys and update. One more question...if the brown wire that is aluminum is bad, can I replace it with better wire? Also the PO replaced the stock steering wheel with an aftermarket one...makes me wonder if anything in column was messed up. But as soon as weather let's up I will dive back into it. Thanks guys

 

[malibujustin]

Adding this...the high/low beam switch on turn signal arm works good.

 

[airboatgreg]

Replace with copper wire of same size or 1 size larger. Sometimes it's easier to get a 4 wire trailer wiring kit and run all new

 

[1bad79]

Not to hijack your thread but can anyone shead light on why those wires are aluminum? Cheaper? Weight savings? An experiment gone wrong?

 

[airboatgreg]

Cheaper. I got that from a GM instructor. They even used it in mobile homes and as I remember it created a lot of fires due to expansion and contraction.
Always the almighty dollar