Dim Bulb

[78SilvAnniv]

No, it's not me!
The R brake light/turn signal bulb is very dim. It lights up, but just barely. I've replaced the bulb, but it's still dim. Do I have a wire on that side draining power somewhere? I pulled as much of the wiring out as I could through the tail light hole, and it all looked fine. Connection seemed good, too. How do I check the rest...do I have to "go in" through the interior?
What should I do?
Silver

 

[ccflorida]

Heidi,
Try cleaning the contacts within the bulb socket, sometimes they have corrosion on the them ....Hope this helps:cool

 

[C5Phil]

Heidi,

Assuming you have checked and cleaned the connections to the socket. Then if you have access to a volt meter, check the voltage at the bulb. It should be about 12 volts or greater with the bulb in place. If it is, then measure the voltage from the ground side of the bulb to the ground side of a bulb you know comes on bright (this insures you have a good ground as reference). If your ground voltage measures more than 1 volt, you have a bad ground. If you do not have a meter you can hook up an extra ground wire from the dim socket to a good ground and see if this fixes it. In this case you can do one of two things, find the bad ground connection and fix it, or if too difficult to get at run another ground from the bulb socket to a good ground. This is perfectly safe and sometimes easier than getting at the original ground. There are a couple of other things you can try if this failes, let me know what happens.

Regards,
C5Phil

 

[78SilvAnniv]

Well...

I didn't clean the connection, I thought it looked okay. I will try that first, and I'm sure we have a volt meter here somewhere, so we'll try that next. Thanks for the tips. If worse comes to worst, we'll have to try running a new ground.
I'll let you know what I find out tomorrow afternoon. Thanks again, Heidi

 

[78SilvAnniv]

ground

Problem was the ground connection. I cleaned the connection, but it remained dim. While I was on the mower, Hubby checked it with the meter and fixed a loose ground connection...so I don't know what exactly he did.

Sil

 

[C5Phil]

Heidi,

Excellent, I have worked on about bizillion electrical troubles over the years and am still amazed how often it is a ground problem. To butcher a phrase "chercher le sol".

Regards,
C5Phil