Brake lights and water

[redSUPRA '88]

ok, so i noticed about 3 weeks ago that the orange light on the dash was on signifying something was up with my tail lights. so i went to the back of my car with the driving lights on and emergency flashers flashing. all the lights were working (i got a friend of mine to check the reverse lights, they were good). so i figured water must hav got on them and it would evaporate soon enuf. i thought this cause my tail light seals are shot and so is the hatch seal. so 3 weeks later i find out that when i brake the only light that works is the top one in the glass??? me and my father have checked the fuses and they're all fine. however we found standing water in the little space above the back wheel well and i'm almost positive there's more where the wires are behind the plastic covering. so wat should i do? if i dry up all the water will the lights work when i brake? or has it caused a lot more damage?
thanks in advance to anyone who replys.

 

[hvyman]

Tail light failure sensor under the drivers side light. If you take it apart you will prolly see a burn mark in the circuit board. Just replace with the same color box with a used one.

You can hard wire it but i dont like that. Rather have it factory.

Up to you.

 

[redSUPRA '88]

thankyou. ill post up when i buy the part if it worked, which it should.

 

[Shadowrun]

My gaskets were bad and my taillights looked like fish bowls but I couldent see spending $50 on two gaskets so I went down to Osh and they had rolls of foam that is very symilar to the factory gasket material cost $2.00 traced my old gasket on to it and cut it out with sissors. It rained alot the last couple of days and they are nice and dry.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

You could also do a relay which is a better.

It is simple to do. Constat power and ground. Constant power to switch circuit and have the brake switch send a ground to relay to turn it on. I have done this already.

 

[S.A. supra]

My gaskets were bad and my taillights looked like fish bowls but I couldent see spending $50 on two gaskets so I went down to Osh and they had rolls of foam that is very symilar to the factory gasket material cost $2.00 traced my old gasket on to it and cut it out with sissors. It rained alot the last couple of days and they are nice and dry.

What kind of foam? What was it used for?

 

[Shadowrun]

Mulituse foam whatever you want to use it for i guess. They also had rolls of cork that you could cut gaskets out of.

 

[S.A. supra]

What section is it in? I got a quote for $48 shipped but I don't want to wait for it to get here. But $2.00 sounds good especially if I get it same day.

 

[Shadowrun]

Its in the first row on the hardwhare end. They have pre measured lengths and thickness of foam rubber and cork. I think he should have charged me like $9.00 but I wasent going to argue.

 

[D.J.T.]

FYI: you can check your reverse lights by yourself. All you need to do is have the car off, key on the "ON" position & the car in the Reverse gear. Just if you didn't know now you do. Lol

 

[hvyman]

Call or go on sf for champion toyota or elmhurst toyota. Should be about 15$ each for the tail seals and they will last another 20 years.

 

[redSUPRA '88]

lol tnx^^^ but i think i tried that and it didnt work..... but i mite not hav been in the on position. i like the foam idea for a gasket.

 

[redSUPRA '88]

well i checked the tail light failure sensor and there are no burn marks. but there was water in the connector..... its raining here so idk wat to do nxt. maybe take the plastic cover off the whole back end? and then start checking all the wires? we read the owners manual and it says the "tree light" runs off of the same wires as the tail lights but it turns on when im braking. so doesn't that rule out any circuits being broken?

 

[mkIIIman089]

Running lights working does not mean the brake lights do...

 

[IJ.]

I always put the box in a Nitrile glove and taped it up, even with new seals the taillights don't seal up 100%...

 

[redSUPRA '88]

what im saying is that it seems to me that there has to be a short somewhere in the wires that provide electricity to the running lights so that they brighten when i brake. i'm just trying to get someone to confirm this who knows more than i do lol. sorry, i'm not trying to be a jerk im just frustrated with this whole thing. i've stripped the whole back end and i found standing water everywhere. there was at least 6 inches of it in the jack holder and little pools of water all around the spare tire well. so i vacuumed it all up and hopefully it dries up within the next day or two so maybe the lights will work. or is this wishful thinking?

sorry hvyman and IJ didn't see ur posts. tnx i think ill do that hvyman. tnx ill get the seals and wrap the sensor in a nitrile glove just for extra measure ^_^

 

[MoparMarq]

The back ends of these cars leak like sieves. Hatch seal, hatch glass, taillight assemblies, windshield wiper shaft, moldings, side marker lights, hatch lock cylinder, antenna shaft, you name it. Probably not going to be able to stop them all. What I did was drill a few holes in the spare tire well so it could drain (careful, the fuel tank is underneath there) and a few holes (from underneath) in the quarter panel wells (where the spare tools and antenna extension motor are located - be sure to lift any wire harnesses from inside before drilling) to allow drainage. Yeah, there might be a little splatter from the back of the tires while driving, but not near as much as from one night's rain shower while parked overnight outside. Had no problems since.

 

[S.A. supra]

Wtf are you joking?

 

[redSUPRA '88]

i want to try to avoid doing that but ill probably end up going down that route... its a lite drizzle here but the back end was completely soaked again today -_-. im gonna hav to wait till things dry up over here before i can make any real progress. until then ill be sopping up the water with a towel to keep things as dry as possible.

 

[hvyman]

I had new seals and it didnt leak at all. I dont get rain for half the year either tho.

If you replace all the seals with toyota seals should have problems.