Driver's Side Tail light does not work

tescamilla · 10-20-2004, 03:16 PM

Have an 87 911 Targa - in otherwise great shape. the driver's side tail light does not work. All other rear lights do. Have checked the fuse and changed the bulb but this did not fix the problem. Does anyone have an idea of what the problem could be? I am desperate now that it's getting dark early.

thanks in advance

concentric · 10-20-2004, 03:28 PM

Just break the other one to match...
...Or post this in the tech area of the forum where you will get answers from above.

djmcmath · 10-20-2004, 04:09 PM

My '86 has problems with moisture accumulating inside the housing. When it's wet, the contacts corrode, and I have to periodically pull the cover off to clean them. Steel wool and PB Blaster does a pretty reasonable job. The contacts might also be a little bent due to old age -- that might cause them to make only loose contact with the bulb.

Just some thoughts from my experience. Oh, and see if a moderator can move this to the 911 tech forum.

Dan

tescamilla · 10-20-2004, 04:19 PM

thanks dan. Tried to move it myself. Guess I'm just braindead tonight. I will pull off the cover tomorrow. Last time i looked, i saw no corrosion but perhaps the contacts are bent. can you access/straighten the contacts without having to take the housing out?

Z-man · Z-man's Garage

Moving to 911 tech forum.
-Z-man.

(Never thought I'd have to do that!)

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

A thread moved _OUT_ of off-topic ?!?

Has this ever happended before?

djmcmath · 10-20-2004, 07:32 PM

Sure you can move 'em. Seems like they're just copper contacts. Be creative. I don't remember how I pulled on mine or I'd be more helpful. As to corrosion, it only takes a little to make them not work at all.

Or maybe that's not your problem at all. Could be bad ground, bad hot signal, etc. Do you have a multimeter?

Dan

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

The KISS method.

My passenger side brake light was out for a while. I pulled off the cover (I meant removed the screws) and took out the light bulbs. I scraped the copper tabs with my screw driver and x-acto blade, then treated it with some stereo connection contact cleaner.

The real problem was one of the tabs was pushed back too far and did not have enough spring pressure on the bulb contact.

Those tabs are super stong and not very bendable, it bent the heck out of my cheep dental tool trying to pull out on it.

An oversized paper clip worked best. I lassoed over the top of the tab and pulled slowly. I could not actually see or feel the metal bending back, but from the amount of force I eventually applied I knew something was about to happen (bad) or what I tried had worked.

It worked!

I cleaned the other contacts and put the bulbs back in.

Note; do not screw the lens cover back on without having someone look back there while testing the brakes and blinkers. I put one of the blinker bulbs in wrong and it did not work, had to re-insert 180 degrees. You may also want to hide the lens cover to keep the curious from stepping on it- don't need any close calls (I saw it you don't have to yell at me).

Crowbob · 10-21-2004, 05:43 AM

Like most electrical problems w/ p-cars, you wave a wand, preferable a torque, wrench in a counterclockwise movement over the offending gizmo, while repeating: "I will not break this" three times. Voila! It still doesn't work.