1993 Dodge Shadow Brake lights

muffinattack · Posted at Sat May 23, 2009 1:26 pm

Electrical problem
1993 Dodge Shadow 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Automatic 153000 miles

Well my driver side tail light works, UNTILL I hit the break then it goes out. The driver side turn singal also does not work. I checked the fuse, I replaced all the bulbs. when I turn the driver side turn signal on the light stays solid. I'm baffled and I was just seeing if this was something I could maybe fix before taking it in, because I got the car for 250$ 3 years ago and shes still going strong. And to be honest there ar eso many things wrong with it dumping to much money into it would be a waste. any suggestions would be nice, thanks guys.

caradiodoc · Posted at Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:16 am

That's the classic description of a bad ground on any car that shares the brake / signal filament and tail light filament in the same bulb.

Your car has unusual rear sockets that have plug-in ground terminals. They get corrosion buildup or the terminal corrodes off. You will see that the left brake light is not as bright as the right one. Current must go through the brake light, tail light, and over to the right tail light to get to ground. That's like three people standing on your garden hose instead of just one. Current goes down in the hose and in your brake light.

The dealer has repair terminals, but it can be hard to get inside the opening to shine up the contact. You might be better off just buying a new socket, or see if you can find a place to solder on a new ground wire. Do not use Scotch-Lok connectors for your new socket. The only professional repair in a high-moisture environment is to solder splices and cover them with heat shrink tubing.

caradiodoc