Where to begin?
 

DS marker lights/brake light out, front & back. Front turn signal works, rear does not.

I was out and about, and as a new 911 owner I'm paranoid about someone damaging my car. After dinner I did the walk-around, and lo and behold, the DS bumper had a big scuff. I think someone managed to back into me, or at least kicked the hell out of it. At any rate, it 'buffed right out' and I thought no more of it, until my fiancee was following me a couple days later and told me that the DS tails were out. I checked the front after that, and found that the markers on that side were out as well.

If it was just the rear lights I'd assume that a contact was broken and needed to be re-soldered, but the front too? Remember I'm a newbie, so please be gentle. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions before I did a little troubleshooting. Why don't you take the covers off both lights and check the bulbs first. The shock could have broken a filament in the front bulb and that could be causing the problem with both lights. The symptoms indicate something simple and I'd start with the bulbs first.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/911/911_Parts/Electrical/911_electrical_82SC_Part2-1.jpg


I did a quick check of the 1982 SC wiring diagram on Pelican (link above). There is a common circuit between the DS side markers, parking lights and the brake lights (part 2-page 1). Power to this circuit is fed through Fuse 4 (5A). The blk/grn wire from the fuse feeds the parking lights and side markers. The grn/blk wire feeds the rear brake lights and side marker (part 3-page 1). I would check the fuse 1st.

regards,
Al