Brake Light Gremlin

[FL-Frank]

All tail, brake, and turn signal lights were operating correctly...until I brought the car in for left rear fender repair. The shop removed the left rear fender, left tail light housing, and bumper for body work and paint, and then reassembled everything. The fender looks great, however, here's what the rear lights are doing now...

With headlights off:

Brake pedal depressed...
Both right and left brake lights light at same brightness

With headlights on:

Left tail light is much brighter than right tail light

Brake pedal depressed...
Right brake light lights to match brightness of left side

Brake pedal released...
Right side returns to just tail light but left side brake light remains lit

Turn signals operate normally on both sides, lights on and lights off.

I thought maybe they wired the left side incorrectly during reassembly, but I checked the connections and they are the same as the right side.

Any suggestions?

[j.goodspeed]

Just a thought. swap the brake light and tail light wires on the left tail light assembly. Brake light filament is on when headlamps are on. The brake light filament is brighter and may have been swapped.

Otherwise, they may have jammed the tail / brake light bulb 180 degrees out. Causing the brake light to illuminate instead of the taillight and vice a versa.
_________________
Jeremy Goodspeed
www.goodspeedmotoring.com
www.goodspeedmotoring.net

[flyboy161]

If I were a shop and I was removing a fender, I'd disconnect the the wiring under the tar board. That's on the left side of the engine bay. Definitely check, I agree with J Goodspeed, it does something HD like they swapped brake and tail light wire on the left side. Or worse, the bulb is not fully seated in the socket.


OR THEY PUT THE TURN SIGNAL BULB IN THE BRAKE LIGHT SOCKET. Single filament bulbs act that way in dual filament slots
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My father's 1970 Beetle-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=603879

The 1964...Diamond in the rough
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=612776

My 1958 Morocco Bug-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=611483

[FL-Frank]

The black and gray wires were reversed on the left side. Connected them per the wiring diagram, and problem solved