Short In The Trunk Wiring?

[mobilyte]

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[obergc]

I would definitely be checking the wiring through the trunk hinge area before I would do any other troubleshooting

[silvermate]

does or has your trunk every leaked??

some of the bulbs or metal connectors on the bulb housing are also probably corroded just from age......... disconnect the battery, take a wire brush and clean all the metal contacts first for the brake lights, then replace all the bulbs with new ones, (they're cheap), and see how it goes from there.

they are probably not getting a good contact to the bulb, hints the brake light goes on and off, and sometimes works, othere times doesnt'

good luck

[mobilyte]

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[jccnita]

a few weeks ago, my brake/tail light warning comes up on my instrument cluster. no biggie since it's happened before and it's an easy fix, had somebody watch as i pressed brakes, checked the side that was out, but bulbs were all good. i tightened the screw that holds the bulb socket onto the gray plastic plate, warning light goes away and brake lights work fine.

few days later, warning light again, this time it's the outer tail light that isnt working when i mash the brakes. fiddle with it for a while, warning light goes away, all is well.

next day warning light comes back up again, and i figure i'll deal with it another day. today i'm driving and something catches my attention every time i brake, wasnt sure if maybe the sun had just made my eyes super tired after a few hours of driving, then i realize that the entire white display of my instrument cluster does a quick flash when i press the brake!

am i starting to suffer from the infamous "wiring harness that passes through the trunk hinge to the rear lights" grounding problem?? i know some people that had this problem caused the Reverse light to come on, but i havent heard anybody with this symptom yet!

I had the same problem before. It's because one of the bulbs is almost going to be bad. I'm sure mine is because of this on one of the stop lights. You can either replace the one(the surface should be darker) or replace them all. I replaced them all & this problem never happen again.

[mobilyte]

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[jccnita]

jccnita, are you saying that your instrument cluster would do a quick flash when you pressed the brake pedal?

It says "Tail Light Failure" & the red LED was on at the same time when I was driving in the day time. That's why I told Lexus Dealer that it must be for the stop lights. I had the same situation as you. The next day, it back to normal. This problem repeated for several times. I hate to have the red LED is on + the message "Tail Light Falure". I decided to replace them all & it was fixed.

I forgot to mention that mine is 98 LS400.

[90LS400Lexus]

I have heard this is a common problem. Luckily, I do not (at least yet) have this problem on my 231K mile 90' LS400. I am wondering though- is there any way to

prevent this from happening? What causes it? I usually raise my trunk easily and I do not let it "fly" up and hit the "rest" points with force. Any other precautions we can take to keep this from occuring?

[itcamefrommars]

I had this problem last year.

The black box by the left trunk hinge had a melted circuit board inside.

traced the problem to a cracked taillight that collected water then shorted the bulb fixture and melted the fixture. cut out the bulb fixture(still haven't replace it) and called the dealer for a price on the black box. $350. A local junkyard had a 93 ls400 and I got the box for a slipped $20 to the worker there with a dozen gold teeth!

changed it out and all was well.

Light came on again (every once and a while) and I changed rear brake pads and it stopped.

Check the box or maybe it comes on when the pads are worn!?!?!

[tansupplyman]

look for a guy with 13 gold teeth for a refund !!!!!!

[VBdenny]

My light out indicator came onb but when I looked, all thge bulbs were lit. Then the light went off the next time I started it. Then the light came on again and went off. It drove me nuts until once I finally found the tailight bulb that apparently was making intermited contact. I replaced the bulb and all is cool.

[92Lex]

I had the exact same problem a couple of weeks ago with my Legend. I pulled out all of the bulbs and found some 1157 bulbs instead of 1156 bulbs...I just replaced them with the correct bulb and everything works fine now.