Dodge caravan tail light issues

[bass1228]

I have a 2000 dodge grand caravan that the drivers side tail light does not work but the brake and the turn signal does. The passenger side works fine. I have replaced the bulb and i have even plugged the housing from the passenger side in the drivers side and the tail light stopped working. is the a relay or something that could be going bad? stumped

 

[LTC8K6]

Have you checked for a blown fuse?

 

[bass1228]

No i have not. I assumed that the fuse would be tied to both sides (passenger and drivers side) and that the other side works, that it wasn't a fuse. I can check.

 

[bruceb]

Check the wires where they go past the tailgate. It is a common issue on that model that the wires may break at that point.

 

[bass1228]

the wires check out fine.

 

[natto fire]

I have a 2000 dodge grand caravan that the drivers side tail light does not work but the brake and the turn signal does. The passenger side works fine. I have replaced the bulb and i have even plugged the housing from the passenger side in the drivers side and the tail light stopped working. is the a relay or something that could be going bad? stumped

Any way to find out where you are supposed to be getting 12v for the tail light at the harness? How is the lamp holder assembly in the driver side housing? I had a '00 Grand Cherokee that had arc damage and melting on the bulb socket assembly.

 

[DrPizza]

I've had problems with my caravan's lighting: moisture was able to penetrate (easily) to where the wiring harness connects to the light. This resulted in the plug rotting out. I ended up needing to (well, could have replaced the whole light fixture, but didn't) cut into the plastic (I used heat and an older soldering tip) to get to the traces that run to the light, and then solder the wires directly to those traces.

 

[bass1228]

So, I checked all of the fuses, both under the dash and under the hood and found one bad fuse. That fixed the running lights. Now the only thing that does not work is the brake on the rear drivers side.

 

[bass1228]

BTW... all the wires, harnesses, plug and connects check out good clean and dry. Also, I have not checked any of the relays under the hood because I don't know which relay (if any) are tied to this and how to check them.

 

[master_shake_]

the socket that pops out on the back of the tail lamp has 4 metal contacts iirc.

they have to make contact with the other metal contacts on the rear of the tail lamp.

you might have a broken one. but you can sort of bend it to make contact with the metal contact on the tail lamp.

see the metal contacts? that's what im talking about.

 

[bass1228]

All the lights are now working. I started by plugging the left side light housing into the right side and the brake lights worked which told me there was something withing the housing. I know the bulbs were ok so i looked at the sockets and pins on the sockets. They looked good but i tried swapping the top socket (for brakes) with the bottom socket (turn signal) since they are identical and both started to work. Not sure what was wrong but it had to be something with the socket and pins. I would like to get to the root cause but I am going to leave it as is since it has been a long three months getting it to work.

 

[RLGL]

Spray the sockets with electrical contact cleaner