1st Gen Tacoma lights

Hi everyone, I am having a world of issues with my lights. 1st gen tacoma, base. When I turn my DRL on my driverside rear tail light all three bulbs light up. The OEM tail light was replaced years ago with a China one. So I thought maybe this was the issue. So I just bought a brand new tail light from Toyota and still same issue.

Other issues I noticed.

1. One license plate bulb has no power.
2. Passenger side front lower turn signal not working.
3. Driver's side turn signal will only work with head lights and DRL off.
4. When headlights are on and I depress the brake the green right arrow on my dash will glow green.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

Do you have trailer plug? On older rigs, the plug can corrode, create a blob of greenish material that conducts electricity. This material feeds one port to another.

Weird things happen with the lighting when this occurs.

TLDR:

Can you check your trailer plug for corrosion?

 

If your tail lights, light with your Daytime running lights .

You have some serious physical damage to the wiring harness allowing the the DRL circuit to energize the tail light circuit

This is one of those in person one step at a time jobs.

Get one circuit at a time working.

 

No trailer plug. I was just under the rear and it looks very clean. The factory black cable covers are still there.

 

So its been some time since I tried anything new. Today I replaced both brake bulbs in the back, and replaced 2 small bulbs on the "middle" brake light above the rear windshield.

Now when I turn the DRL or headlights on the driver's side (left) turn signal doesn't work. But the right does.

In addition when the DRL or Head lights are on the entire tail lights are on. Brake, turnsignal, reverse lights.

This morning I also replaced the turnsignal switch on the steering column and still no change.

 

Just bc I ran into this on Chinese tails….
Are u mixing LED/conventional bulbs?

I got new tail lamps, and swapped some led bulbs I had in tool box. Crazy stuff started occurring. Not hyper flashing, but one lamp blinking once then staying on/one side would blink upper then middle when brake pedal pressed

I slept on it
Then in the AM took out led’s and replaced with conventional bulbs
No issues since

 

The driver side tail light was Chinese, I replaces 2 bad bulbs then this happens. So I replaces the entire tail light with an OEM one.

 

Dang.

sorry not going to be very helpful
But
Guessing something to do with a Ground wire………somewhere
Too many issues/affected lighting systems at once

kinda like this:



^^^on this ground, 5 separate ground wires for 5 separate systems….all related to one ground bolt to frame rail
GL
Please let us know

 

I have been reading about the grounds. So far all grounds iv checked are fine. No corrosion, well torqued...

 

Damn

I absolutely HATE electrical shit like this

I’m going to revert to what Bivouac stated
It’s going to be a PITA
But so easy to fix once u find issue

 

When you replaced the tail light with OEM, did you reuse the bulbs? Are the bulbs led? The only place where the brake circuit comes together with the turn signal circuit is the tail light. Power is most likely bleeding through the bulb to the turn signal indicator. By your description it seems like you have multiple issues, but start with the tail lights and put incandescent bulbs in to eliminate any variables there.

 

Verify that all bulbs are single element first.

 

Naw nbz
Cheap budget tails came with oem bulbs
Swapped in leds (brake only) and weird stuff started happening
As u stated
Placed original bulbs in….works no issues