Driver side tail light dimmer than passenger

Driver side tail light went out on my daughter's 2006 tacoma. I bought a cheap set off ebay to replace both sides. They look like the factory ones on my 13 & 14. The driver's side tail light isn't as bright as the passenger side. What should I be checking for?

 

The only thing you can really check is voltage. You could also check the resistance of the new bulbs, but I kind of doubt you are going to see a difference.

 

An easy test, though a pita, is to swap bulbs between left and right fixtures.
If the dimness travels with the bulb, then get a new bulb.
If the dimness stays with the fixture, then cleaning the bulb contacts may be required.

 

Did you mean to say

Then cleaning the socket contacts may be required? I mean he already moved the bulb in the bulb swap scenario.

 

Bad ground?

 

Sounds like a ground issue to me.

 

tailight part is LED

 

I'll have to check. Where is the ground for that?

 

No bulb to remove for tail light part. It's LED.

 

Since it was a ebay special I'd suspect a shitty part.

Connectors should be the same side to side so easiest thing to do would be to plug it into the other side and see if it's still dim.

 

Thats The Post of The Day right there...

 

Gotcha

 

I believe the ones I took off were some high dollar ones & only lasted a couple years.

 

I didn't realize that they were LED, though I guess I should have.
Because you are changing the whole fixture, I'm guessing that the LEDs are an integral part of the fixture and are not easily replaced.
Doesn't eBay have a mechanism where eBay will compensate you if the seller doesn't make good on your purchase?
I'm assuming that these weren't used (as-is) parts.

 

I plugged it into passenger side & it’s still dim so I will contact seller for a swap.

 

Dim on other side too. Faulty light.