headlights, but no rear lights. wtf

[6inarow]

my 87 gl coupe is startin to frikin piss me off. i went to start and as i turned on the headlights, i was told that i had no rear lights. i pushed the brake pedal, and the brake lights work, but not the rear.?? all fuses are good, im lost.

[GeneralDisorder]

Pull the bulbs and check for corrosion - check for power back there and clean the ground connections. Could be something simple.

 

Double check the fuses - the tail-lights are not on the same circuit as the head lights.

 

GD

[TheLoyale]

Yep recheck the fuses as I had something simular once. Everytime you depress the brake pedel that fuse would blow (Found out that a sliced wire was grouding out under the dash) the Brake lights are not on the same fuse as the Trail lights. I'd get a multi-meter on the rear light sockets and see if you get any voltage when the pedel is pressed (Like GD stated)

 

-Tom

[idosubaru]

Not sure about your GL but on XT's there's a very specific connector just above the clutch pedal that causes this exact problem on XT's. I believe it's white on XT's, your EA81 would likely be completely different...though usually browned from the short.

 

It's usually easily diagnosed by fiddling your feet amongst all the wires above the pedal assembly - if you hit a bad one it'll blow a fuse, the head lights will go out, or the tail lights will come back on, etc.

 

Same symptoms on XT's though - rears typically lost first...then headlights start to go, wiggling and jiggling may bring them back to life but worsens over time to not working at all.

 

Of course the bulbs and fuses are the obvious places to start though.