Intermittent Running Light Issue

Hi All!

 

I recently got my car back on the road after replacing the rocker....yes you read that right, I replaced the rust that resembled a rocker in my car for some ungodly reason. Ill be making a thread about that soon with plenty of pictures that will give everyone here an inside look at their own rocker which could help with repairs and what not.

 

However the issue I'm facing now has to do with the lights on the car, specifically the taillights running lights and all the lights illuminating the dash and center consul. All of my other lights work except the parking lights and this has also been an intermittent problem. After fiddling with the parking light switch yesterday my lights started working again but then after shutting off the car and turning it back on they were out again and I haven't gotten them to work since. Also all of the fuses are good and so are the bulbs. I suspect the parking light switch has something to do with my issue and I found a post in a different thread where someone hardwired their parking light switch to be always off and it did the trick. I wanna try that but I don't see 3 wires coming off the parking light switch like they were talking about. I was also wondering if anyone else had this issue and resolved it or if anyone has wiring diagrams for those light from front to back or any recommendations for a spray to clean out my parking light sensor because it is filthy! It'd be nice to get my car inspected since it hasn't been since 2016, anything helps! This also seems to be a semi common issue so I WILL be posting how this gets resolved.

 

Thanks

Did you weld on the car with the battery connected?

For all of my rocker repair I did not but post repair I may have when trying to remove a stuck bolt but the ground was very close and it was a very short weld, why what did you have in mind?

Im planning on swapping some relays around to see if that fixes the problem and checking bulbs, if i cant find anything there then Im going to remove the parking light switch and clean it good because my car is diiirtyyy and if that doesnt work then im going to bypass the switch with jumper wires to see if the switch is trash

Whenever you weld on a car you really need to break the circuit for the electronics (i.e. disconnect the battery) because when you weld on a car you are now adding a lot of current to a completed circuit which can/will short and fry stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if fuses got blown or relays fired. Not trying to make it catastrophic sounding, just saying that the safety net things such as fuses would be the first things I'd look at.

Yes that makes sense, I already checked the fuses but I should really test them also. On another note during my lunch break i found out that one of the bulbs has a broken filament which I believe is the running light filament and some of the wires in the hatch were chewed on by something, not chewed through but there are several exposed wires

Could a bulb with a filament disconnected on one side cause all this drama though?

It's possible, depending how damaged the filament is, it can also potentially light up when in the right position. I'd just replace all the bulbs that look questionable and then see if you issue is resolved. Mind as well since they're cheap and easy to remove

I think I remember hearing that welding without pulling the battery connection can weld a relay in one position. Or I might need to sleep more. Not sure.

 

Definitely meter the fuses. I would get some electronics spray cleaner and try to clean the switch with that. Then you might also shoot some DeOxit in there and then switch it like 100 times.

 

I have some wiring info for a 95, if that is what you have we'll see what we can do there.

So I've determined that the fuse box is not getting power and the relays are clicking and I tried the relays for the fan and rear defroster in the taillight spot but none worked so now I'm going to be checking to see if the relay is getting good power

Relay is not seeing any power where it counts bout to take off the fender, Ive checked all the fuses in the fuse box in the engine compartment but are their any other components in there that could affect this?

found corroded wires

Sounds like a critter likes how your wiring loom tastes.

Maybe a gang of mice selling copper? Either way my car is now back in working order after repairing the wires

Good!

 

On the rodents, I heard a rumor that jetting things down with a can of DustOff held upside down so the bitterant gets everywhere will help. I have not tested this.