1999 Grand Caravan Sport

Hello all. Looks like a very helpful site. Here is my issue.
Where the pencil points is a damaged contact(?). It should look like the contact to the right of the pencil point.

The hole is where the brakelight inserts. How do I fix or build up that damaged piece?
What would cause it to deteriorate? The plastic around the edge is melted.
I'm not much of a handy man, but I'm figuring on soldering something to build it up or heading to my local pick n pull to see if I can buy the whole rear light assembly.

Any help and advice is appreciated.
Thanks!

 

Welcome to DF
Sorry to say, the only way to fix it. Is to replace the whole assy.

 

That's the direction I'm leaning to solve the problem. Thanks Master Tech.
Any idea what could cause that to melt and break? The contact spur that would meet with that piece is burned brown too.

 

$40 for the taillight assembly at a local Pick n Pull.
Case closed.

 

I recently ran into this on my sisters 99 caravan. I too replaced the taillight assmby with a good used unit . Two weeks later the problem returned.
So I bought another one from the junkyard. But while I was there I pulled 8 more taillights .... all but one were toasted. This apparently is an ongoing problem. If it returns I intend to replace everything from the wiring harness to the bulbs... with a harness I'll have to construct myself .

Seems like Dodge should've fixed this .