Celica Forums General Discussion General Electrical Prob w/ Tail lights?

I just have a GT 2004 .(MICA Blue). So anyways yesterday i got pulled over by a cop. They told me that my tail lights were not working. But when i step on the brakes. It lights up. Im thinking its the fuse. But why would the brake lights go on if the fuse is bad. It cant be the bulbs. Can anyone help?

check to make sure none of the wires are pinched btwn the lens and the frame of the car. the same thing happened to me~

<3 carmela

no wires are pinched. Why would just the brakes lights work
and not the tail lights? This really sucks. I'd hate to take to the dealer for something stupid. I think its some kind of electrical prob. does anyone else have any suggestions?

Its not the fuse fuses dont magically fix them selves if there blown there blown . Maybe the cop was messing with you ??

nah the cop ask me to take a look for myself, and i did. They dont work.

so what doesn't work??
the brake lights work right? but the turn and the on lights don't work?

the tail lights don't work.. you know, when you turn on the lights and your "brake" light bulbs light up, but dimmer than when you actually step on the brake.

I was looking at the electrical diagram when i seen the Taillight control Relay.
https://celicahobby.com/tech/tsb2/ARTICLE_FUSEBLOCK_DIAGRAM.pdf

Can the tailight control relay cause the tail light to not light up? I really cant check now its raining hard as hell.

can someone help??

have someone check the bulbs,then check the wire thats going to the bulb,if you put one side of a 12 volt meter to ground,and put the other end on the wire going to the bulb,it should read 12volts when you click the lights switch once.
check to see if your side markers are coming on as well(orange light on bumper)and the two lights thats above the license plate.
after you have determined that there is no voltage,you can work your way back to the relay.

If you need one of those relays, I bought one and it didn't fix my problem, I'll be glad to sell it to you.

It's $63 from Toyota, I'll sell it for $49 shipped

i thought there are 2 wires in the bulb...maybe one is blown?

how can that be? when i step on my brakes, both the tail lights light up fine. The lights above the plates also lights up. When i put the gear into reverse the white light comes one. Everything else is fine. except the tail lights. Are there different wires that connects to the same bulb? how are the signals being sent to the tail lights?

Oh yeah i dont need to buy a new relay. my car is still under warranty. i just dont want to go to the dealer for something minor.

that light bulb has a double filament inside it, which means it may have a common ground but different power source, which again means two different electrical system. but if you want to go through the hassle of diagnosing it eventhough your car is probably still under warranty. you would need a probe light, and start looking for power, and double check the ground too hope this would help.

just got my car fixed today. everything was under warranty. ( had to argue wit the dealer ship because they said it was the after market tail lights that caused the prob. i told him that i didnt use any new bulbs. all i did was took off the stock tail lights and replace them with the after market ones. I used the same bulbs.) The guy working on it said that some wires were messed up. Nothing i did though... He had to retrace all of the wires back to the fuse to find out what was wrong with it. Glad have my lights fixed...

Now next step.. Tint, Body kit or Intake? i have rims, n the s2000 antenna.

pics of my car here... http://home.comcast.net/~khmaizone/celica_04/images/DSC00030copy1.jpg

All 3

sorry can't help on that one

intake...

Sounds like a grounding problem to me...

Dude, I got the same exact problem !
do you remember what was the exact prob? I mean how did the mechanic sort it out? I dont have the car under warranty and I dont wanna spend a lot for this !
Thank You.

Tail lights and brake lights are on 2 different fuses.

Brake light is #18 15 A in the engine's fuse box.

Tail light fuse is #18 10 A at the left passenger's knee.

My tail light fuse keep blowing. I checked and fixed all the wirings at the tail lights and the front light. It still blows. I put in a 30A fuse right now to keep it working until I can work on it some more.

The latest work was to replace the 2 low beam front bulbs with the Hikari LEDs. it needs an adapter to press the bulb into the cavity so the clip spring can lock securely. But it could not focus into a solid beam. The light is bright but shine high in a couple beams regardless of the rotation position of the bulb.

I may have shorted some wires so the tail light fuse keeps blowing. Have to go back and look some more. It's a PIA.

Brought the car to the shop that installed the security system and the DVR.

They spent 3 hours checking all wires and testing various electronic parts. Finally they found the tail light and rear defogger relays dead. These are the 2 relays on the right most position of the fuse box at the passengers' left knee. That was why the tail light fuse kept popping. Both use Denso ITEM : # DEN567-0004 4 -blade relay

I ordered 2 relays direct from Denso, $14.43 each, cheapest and 100% sure genuine parts as there are lots of counterfeits in the market.


https://www.densoproducts.com/product.aspx?zpid=14555&_ref=ca-wtb&_refv=2282558469

Denso Relay DAYLIGHT RUNNING $14.43 4 TERMINALS 20A

SKU: #567-0004
ITEM : # DEN567-0004
BRAND : Denso
Voltage 12.0 Volts DC
Terminal Type Blade

The problems were not the relays. The installer just BS to get rid of me. They damaged some wires while installing the DVR. They pulled the wires too rough through the rear hatch, potentially damaging some wires.

The license plate light is flickering, so it's likely shorted to the frame. Will have to pull them out of the channel and inspect.

The rear hatch lock switch is also shorted intermittently, causing the doors to unlock and security system to disarm.

The shop that pulled the rear camera wire through the tubular channel on the hatch very likely scraped a few wires, tail lights, rear hatch switch. Damn guy was brutal and careless.

Now I have to pull the wire harness out of the channel to fix the scraped wires. The harness bundle is tight in that channel. Dont know how the factory pulled it through.

While trouble shooting I replaced the 7.5A fuse with 30A fuse. That burned something in the Body Control Module. Now I have no switch voltage out of the relay. The new BCM costs $1,100 from dealers. I found an used one with the fuse panel attached for $70 in eBay.

Have to fix the shorts before replacing the BCM or it may be damaged again. Damn waste of time.

The tail light's 10A fuse kept blowing, I inserted a 30 A fuse to keep the tail light working long enough so i could find the short. WRONG MOVE. The short drew 30A, melted and burn off the tail light wire, also burned the fuse box and damaged the Body Control Module. Except the front lights, a lot of lights did not work after. An electrical shop wanted $150 diagnostic plus whatever repair to be made.


I spend upward of 50 hours looking for the short, but all my previous diagnoses were wrong. The BCM costs $1,100 at dealers. I found a used combination fuse box and BCM in eBay for $70. i was going to cut wires and pull the wire bundle out of of the hatch's tube to find the short, but was afraid I would cause more damages. Lucky I did not start that project.

Found am electrical shop recommended by my mechanics. I explained to him the short problem. He said would fix the short and replace the BCM for $95. After he put in the BCM, lots of the lights worked again. He removed all interior plastic panels and found the tail wire complete burned and fractured with insulation completed melted along the entire length, due to my crude tampering. He had to untie the harness bundle and replace the taillight wire from the trunk to the wire harness under the dash.

He told me LED bulbs cause a lot of problem. Apparently the LEDs get very hot, send high temp all along the wires, melt and dissolve wire insulation. He replace all rear bulbs with incandescent. All LEDs tail bulbs were all replaced with incandescents. The tail/brake double filament bulb is 7440.

Everything is working now. Car is fully functional, Total cost was $225. I am glad I found that electrical shop and got out of that nightmare.

.