A few weeks ago I was getting a light indicator when I pushed down my brake peddle. I looked at my rear tail lights and noticed that some of bulbs were burning weak (not as bright as others). This is only on the rear left side, right side looks perfect. I replaced a few bulbs and ended up removing one bulb that didn't seem to do anything (the bottom inside bulb). The indicator went off.

Fast forward a few weeks... A few days ago I started noticing that when I was stopped at a light (with the brake peddle engaged), the left blinker was not working (not blinking in the front or back of car and the green blinking arrow on the dash was not blinking. When I took my foot off the break, it would start working but as it was blinking, the bad light indicator was blinking with it. After a minute or two it would start working normally. When I got home it was in the weird state, so I was able to get out of the car while it was blinking and watch the tail lights. The yellow light would blink on, then when it went off, the red lights above would blink, a one on, the other off, then one off, the other on. I changed the blinker to the right and on the right tail lights, all lights were on, but only the yellow was blinking (may be not all lights, but the ones that are supposed to be on). I also looked at the bulbs on the left and they looked like they were fading, like they were not getting the right voltage.

Any suggestions? Should I just try replacing all the bulbs? Could one bad one be pulling the other down? I really don't want to pay my shop to debug an electrical issue, but I may have to if this keeps happening. For now it is only intermittent, so I can live with it.

Thanks in advance!

 

Not sure what the issue may be. It would be cheaper to look at the wire harness at the tail light to see if there is some damaged wires or bad connectors. You could get a light assembly and replace it. If that doesn't work, you can replace the flasher/hazard switch, I think it is the controller/relay that controls all that stuff.

 

It sounds like a bad earth wire at the tail light. Make sure all wires are in good condition, and the plug is nice and clean.