taillights only work on rare occasiion

[rpatton3]

My brake lights work fine. Tail lights work if wire is jiggled. Can sockets for wire connections be repaired or replaced?

Lost source of 93 ethanol free so I put in 100LL avgas for 1/2 tank. 905 miles in two years needs no ethanol.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by rpatton3

Can sockets for wire connections be repaired or replaced?

Yes..

[rpatton3]

Thanks,

Russell

I was afraid it not possible to repair these. Any suggestions? Connectors in back first? Do the come out?

[Rich A]

check tail light connection inside trunk.
unbolt tail light from the inside of the trunk.
check wires at the bottom of tail light socket.
check inside socket bulb contacts.
solder loose or broken wire.

or if the bulb socket is the removable type you can replace the tail light socket.

[Rich A]

double post

[6t8stang]

Good time to upgrade to LEDs! Mine were also intermittent and I cut out the socket and soldered in the LEDs.

[rpatton3]

Thanks for the help. I like the LED idea. Are there any problems with mounting?

I will be sure to check connections first. The left brake light comes on with a wire jiggle just in back of socket. I need to nail down right side first.

Do LED's use more current or will I have any surprises? If I can find a reputable shop, I might just change all of six of the bulb/sockets.
Will I have to get a home equity loan or sell a kidney?

Thanks to everybody on this somber day.

[jualwatt]

These are what I am looking to change to:

1157 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 1 x 3 Watt High Power LED w/ Reflector Lens | LED Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs | LED Car Bulbs | Super Bright LEDs

or:

1157 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 1 Watt LED w/ Stock Cover | LED Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs | LED Car Bulbs | Super Bright LEDs

And of course the 1156 version for the rear directionals.

I do not have a part number yet, but I am told there is a replacement socket that will fit in place of the stock one from Land Rover. I do not know if it has the plug on the end for easy connection or if this will need to be removed from the stock units and added to the rover parts.

The reason for selecting these specific bulb styles (and I am leaning toward the first) is the fit as many are too large for the overall housing and depth of the socket.

These use quite a bit less power than a standard 1157 bulb which uses 8.3 watts for the low element and 26.8 watts on the high element, so the wiring is not an issue at only 3 watts.

Hope this helps,

Julian

[itstock]

The cheap socket is usually the problem, not the bulb. YMMV.

[jualwatt]

What I found was with the original socket, if you are stuck in traffic for a long period of time with the brake on, the bulbs get hot enough to start to melt the plastic of the socket and the bulb loses contact (I had one come out inside the lens). If you are not generating the heat to begin with, the "cheap" socket should last.

My plan is to only change the two sockets I had an issue with and if reasonable, go with the better parts to do so, but change the bulbs to LED's as well. Another advantage to the LED's is they are brighter.

Julian

[twobjshelbys]

I had intermittent problems on my CSX. They would be "off" or very dim. I blamed Lucas (with setting of dim and very dim) but it turned out to be the ground lead. Mine had a hot wire and a chassis ground. Check the screw around the lead, and be sure to scruff some of the paint around the lead collar.

[twobjshelbys]

Re: LEDs. The problem with the LEDs is generally they point one direction whereas the bulb is 360*. The tail lights depended on the filaments and bulb being "exposed" since the bulbs are upright instead of straight out the back. There are some LED replacement bulbs of that type that have side LEDs that do project that direction. Be sure you see a picture before ordering.

Front facing LEDs are much brighter. Like I said, tail lights are "dim".

[rpatton3]

Thanks for all your advice.

Russell

[Widows Son]

I have a backdraft #1185 and I had several of my front signal and rear lights go on the fritz. I traced the problem down to the 1157 bulb not seating well in the plastic sockets and over a very short time and it wouldn't take long for them to unseat again. Plastic sockets were a royal pain in that they didn't retain the bulb well; there are 2 notches of different depths to accommodate the tabs on the bulbs so the bright filament (brake or turning flash) and semi-bright filament (or parking light) would be properly set to the 2 pins.

Jay @ Vintage did his best by quickly sending me replacement sockets but they didn't last since the plastic was susceptible to the heat of the bulbs and softened to the point where the bulb just didn't sit right.

Being the electrical engineer I decided to modify the existing socket after a search for metal 1157 2-wire sockets + ground prong:
1) cut the plastic retaining socket off
2) insert the new metal socket
3) Re splice and solder the original socket wiring

All in, a total of 30 min per socket. The pictures show a before and after and thother is the 2 kinds of metal sockets I got : 1157 2 wire + ground prong and 1156 1 wire + ground.

Help 85860 Unv W/Grnd Tab Socket : Amazon.com : Automotive

Pico 5444pt Sngl Contact Bk-Up Skt 1-1/8h : Amazon.com : Automotive


So I'm not claiming you have a socket problem - All I'm saying is I had 3 that went bad and couldn't "hold" the bulb in position. I had folks drive up and say " Nice car, but your brake light is out."

[6t8stang]

I went with these in red: Motorcycle LED Light Bulbs

I originally bought the 1157 style, but after having socket problems (which it sounds like you're having), I cut off the end and soldered directly to the harness. A little pricey, currently at $25 a pop, but MUCH brighter and never a socket problem again. It's really as easy as cutting, stripping, soldering and taping a few wires. I held them in place with heavy duty double-sided tape.

As already mentioned, they draw less power, generate little to no heat and are VERY bright. I think I had to make very minor modifications to the circuit board so the screws would clear - just a little carving with a utility knife.

I replaced my front and rear turn signals with these same LEDs. When I only replaced the rears, they worked fine. Once I also replaced the fronts, I had to install a resistor inline so they still blinked - added resistance was needed for the flasher module to still work since the LEDs were drawing much less power. If you're only replacing the brake lights, you won't need to worry about resistors.

[jualwatt]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Re: LEDs. The problem with the LEDs is generally they point one direction whereas the bulb is 360*. The tail lights depended on the filaments and bulb being "exposed" since the bulbs are upright instead of straight out the back. There are some LED replacement bulbs of that type that have side LEDs that do project that direction. Be sure you see a picture before ordering.

Front facing LEDs are much brighter. Like I said, tail lights are "dim".

In the first link I showed above, the viewing angle is 320 degrees due to the built in reflector lens even though it is a single hight intensity LED. I am going to give it a try and see how it works.

Julian

[rpatton3]

Thanks for everybody chiming in on advice.
Yom Kippur begins today for all you Gentiles, like me.

[jualwatt]

All,

I have replaced all 6 turn/stop/running lights with these LED replacements:

1157 LED Bulb - Dual Intensity 1 x 3 Watt High Power LED w/ Reflector Lens | LED Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs | LED Car Bulbs | Super Bright LEDs

and

1156 LED Bulb - Single Intensity 1 x 3 Watt High Power LED w/ Reflector Lens | LED Brake Light, Turn Light and Tail Light Bulbs | LED Car Bulbs | Super Bright LEDs

I found them to be at least as bright from all angles and definitely brighter looking straight on. A little pricey, but not outrageous and they fit the sockets/lenses very well (even better than the standard bulb as the glass just about bottoms on the plastic when turning into the socket) . I do think that some of the other variants are very directional, but the reflector added to this one appears to do the job well. I also think that a number of the other styles listed on the site will just not fit the sockets.

Selecting the color to match your lens color as suggested worked for me as mine are amber and red only (no clear ones).

Julian

[rpatton3]

We are going to have to hire a shop to do this. I suppose I will just fix tail lights. Now, an amber light is dimmer on one side than another.

Now, what does this mean? What do I tell the guys at the shop that would get my tail lights and weak bulb in good order?

Would you guys recommend my regular mechanic, a bike shop or maybe an electronics guy? Guys like me in Arkansas without connetions need folks like you.

Thanks for each response.

[mln385]

Automotive wiring is a skill in un of itself. I your regular mechanic is well versed in the automotive wiring he may be the one. If not hunt down a hot rod shop or old corvette restorer.

Sounds like a loose ground to me.