my right tail lights went out. no big deal, i replaced the bulbs and it still didnt work. so i thought the wiring was bad or something so i took off my left tail lights (they worked) and plugged it into the right side and it worked fine. so the wiring is good.

so i cleaned out the connections in the R.TL and i took the left T.L. off of the right side and took all of the L.T.L. bulbs (they worked) out and put them in the R.T.L. assembly. Yay! now my right side works fine

so i put the best bulb from the side that was originally messed up in the LTL with the two new bulbs that i just bought and it worked!..... except for the freaking turn signal. but at least i had brake lights and stuff... BUT NOW MY LEFT TAIL LIGHTS ARE OUT.

in summary, none of my lights were burned out and my wiring is fine. what could be the problem?

 

Sometimes when one side is bad it can cause problems on the other side.

 

so should i just go buy a couple more packages of new bulbs and replace all of the lights?

 

It wouldn't hurt. Also clear up the terminals and use De-electric grease. Sometime the terminals on the bulbs will flatten out and cause connection problems.

 

awesome, i'll pick some up after work. that de-electric grease is available at pepboys/ oreilly right?

 

Ya they should have it.

 

Don't be surprised if the sockets themselves are bad, I've had to replace 2 on my truck.

 

I haven't looked at my tail lights for awhile, so this might not work for you, but I have had this problem on other trucks i have worked on sometimes from paint being sprayed on the contact points, use some sand paper on the terminals if they are oxidized or dirty, and if you can bend out the contact points so they make better contact.

 

My light bulb was completely rust fused and shorted out. Looks like someone had replaced it before me and now it just got replaced again.