lost on why my tail lights won't work

This is my first actual post so I will do my best to provide a good description and pictures. So, I have a 2002 tacoma ext cab v6 manual that came with stupid looking after market tail lights. I wanted to switch them out right away and was going to go back to stock ones but
Sicyota04 Had a set up LED spyder ones I liked. He gave a sweet deal (which was much appreciated) and I got them. I plugged them in and they did not work correctly. Here is what my observations were.

If i have the tail lights in that came with the truck they work fine.

If i plug in both new LED tail light on the driver side only then everything works fine.

As soon as I plug in the passenger side LED tail light and have my head lights on and my blinkers the driver side tail light blinker is dim and the LED tail light part (which is always supposed to be one when the head lights are on) blinks. At this point the passenger side tail light part is no longer on at all.

If only plug in the passenger side LED tail light it screws up the tail light that came with the truck.

Those are my observations and I am at a lost I have tried switching the LED's to make sure the bulbs are all good and they both work fine so its definitely my wiring or something. After messing with all this I have also noticed that right after putting everything back together, I was driving and had my blinker on, and when I stepped on my brake I lost my blinker and it would blink super fast on my dash. That went away but thought I would mention it.
(the first picture is my old tail lights, the second picture is my new ones.)


Any help would be extremely appreciated.

 

Few things, first, get a test light.

You had stupid looking aftermarket lights, so went Spyder because those look better?

Ohm meter would work better.

Talk to me about those Spyder lights. Led, right? Did you replace flasher until with led friendly, or add resistors? Don't think the cheap Chinese spider turns included a built in resistor for turn/led hyperflash.

 

^^^ Also your issue sounds like one caused by the passenger harness or light missing a ground or having a ground contact a hot and causing backfeed. Check all your wires and crimps at connectors and bulb bases.

 

Yes they are LED and I did buy resistors. I am planning on spending some time working on them tomorrow and will see if the resistors help but also wanted to post here to get any other suggestions as well.

 

There's nothing special?

Basic 12v system with minimal resistance, hence why you need resistors. After you play with test lights/ohm meter, post findings and maybe we can provide useful info.

 

If you have a trailer light box converter thing, try disconnecting it if you can. They can cause all kinds of weirdness

 

There is a wiring harness for the trailer and I did disconnect that and it did not help.

Thanks everyone for the replies!!

 

I did test everything with an ohm meter but that was a few weeks ago. Thinking back, I do not know if I tested the passenger LED tail light with the driver LED tail light plugged in. I will do that tomorrow and hopefully that will give me some use full info. Thanks for the help!

 

Sometimes an ohmmeter won't find the fault if it's a loose ground. The problem only manifests itself when there is a high current. You need to physically locate the ground points and other connections and make sure they are secure.

Also, remove the bulbs and check the contact points in the bulb sockets for anything unusual. Sometimes heat from the bulbs can cause damage in the socket.

 

Yes, switch the bulbs in the housing. Using an ohm meter, make sure you have a ground in the troubled side. Super faint can indicate you have a loose, or more likely no ground. It very well could be no ground in the light itself, or some other manufacturing defect. LED's are so sensitive, they can do WEIRD things with no ground, like light up super dim. Rigids do it too.

OR, the polarities could be messed up somewhere, the bulb itself, any wiring in the spyder housing, or even some other weird oddity. Old school incandescent bulbs are very forgiving. LED's are snot.