So here's where I'm sitting: This summer, my right rear running light decided to go out. I got a warning then forgot about it, so I got a ticket from Yellowstone's finest park ranger... *cough*douchebag*cough*
It wasn't the bulb, and today I thought to switch the wire from the backup (reverse) light to the terminal of the running light, and whaddya know, it worked. SO, that means there is a problem with that individual wire. As far as I can see, there is no problem with the wire, but it runs around the back of the car out of sight to who-knows-where.
If anybody has tips on how to dig out the whole wiring bundle that runs around the rear of the car, that would be helpful. (since it seems to be ridiculously difficult)
In lieu of actually fixing the problem, I was thinking of just rewiring it to something so that it is always on when the car is on. In this situation, what do you think a good system to wire it into would be? I considered wiring it straight to the other running light's terminal, but then I thought that maybe it would be too much current for the wire to handle. If anybody has any experience, input is greatly appreciated. (don't worry, I know my way around a soldering iron and some heat shrink)

 

wagon or sedan?

 

Wagon

 

do you have 12v going to the bulb socket?

 

on the 240 sedans, and I'm pretty sure the wagons, the wires all run down the left side door sills, over the left rear wheel well, to the left tail light, then some of them go over to the right tail light.

on our 87 240 sedan, we lost the right rear parking light a long time ago, and yeah, it was the wiring, so I hot-wired it to the left rear parking light. this permanently lit the bulb-out idiot light but that thing was intermittently flakey anyways. had no problems with the wire harness yet, and its been like this for 10+ years.

 

Thank you pierce! I shall proceed to wire it into the other side's wire.

 

Hey my boss does some quick and dirty fixes like that sometimes. I did it the other day on a Tacoma. Dead cigarette lighter. It would take more time to diag the circuit than just add 12v with igntion on from the disconnected radio wires that were dangling right there.

A wiring diagram and multimeter is the proper way to fix a circuit, but good ol' backwoods engineering can work too!

 

a cigar lighter needs high current power, they often draw like 8-10 amps, so you need to pull that from something like the accessory power relay rather than directly off the ignition switch.

 

Hey I know the right way and the wrong way to hack stuff in. He will only use it to charge cell phones so it should be OK. If it pulls too much it will pop the radio fuse.