One of my taillights recently stopped working - the brake lights work, it's just the one that goes on when you turn on the headlights that's not working. When I opened it up, I saw that the connector was melted bit where one of the pins from the taillight unit connects to the wiring connector. What's the best way to replace that connector?Any idea why it melted to begin with? These are aftermarket taillights, if that could have anything to do with it.

Thanks

 

It sounds like the light shorted somewhere and drew way too much current. Maybe check inside of the unit itself to see if something is wrong with the terminal where the lamp plugs in; if something shorted there, it would have bypassed the resistance of the lamp and drawn a lot of electricity through there. If the lamp failed, it should have just stopped the flow of electricity to that part, but if it failed and retained a connection, electricity would have just flowed through there much more freely (and at a higher current - which melted the connector).

Unfortunately it wasn't enough juice to blow a fuse (which would have been the best thing to happen), but it was enough to destroy the wiring.

Also, check to see what the fuse rating is on that circuit and make sure it's appropriate for those lights.

 

Hmmm. There was one bulb whose housing was a a little "browned", but the bulb still worked - I tried the whole taillight unit on the other side ofthe carand all lights worked.Thecoupling (wiring connector from the car)on the bad side has one "pin receptacle" that is melted enough that I can't plug the unit back in. I need to replace that whole connector. Not sure if I need to cut thewires and splice on a new connector(??). Maybe I should replace that one bulb housing that was a little burned looking too.

Thanks for the info - I'd apprecate any otherthoughts you may have.