1992 Dodge Dakota Pick-up: Seeing Lights

Q--I've got a problem with my 1992 Dodge Dakota pickup. Whenever I depress the brake pedal the left rear brake light comes on when the lights are off, but it comes on dim when the lights are on. The tail lamps are on but the left rear is dim, not as bright as the right rear.

When you depress the brake pedal while the lights are on the left rear light goes out completely. When you turn the right turn signal on when the lights are on, the left rear light goes out completely. I've replaced the bulb, I've replaced the flasher, and I've checked for continuity in the bulb socket. The rear bulb is a dual-filament type in which one serves as the tail lamp and the other as the turn signal/brake light. This setup seems simple enough but something is going wrong with mine. Any suggestions on this problem?

A--Wow. That sounds crazy and you are probably thinking that this may be a big-bucks repair, huh? There is good news: It isn’t. There is simply a bad ground in the brake lights circuit.

When you turn the lights on, the circuit for the tail light filament can’t find a convenient ground so the current passes through the filament for the brake light then over to the other side of the truck before completing the circuit. Fix the ground and you’ll fix all of the problems, cheap.