camaro15

I had this problem ever since i bought the car its a 94 trans am m6 stock besides a thrush muffler and no cat. When my headlights are off the tailights work normal. when i turn my headlights on my tailights turn on, but when i step on the brake pedal they dont brighten up. Only my third brake light works how it should be. what should i check for? i check the ground by the trunk release and its on their tight

blue02formula

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a ground to me. I had this happen to my truck not to long ago. Do the turn signals work?

PontiacFan

iTrader: (104)

Did you open'em up & check the bulbs at all?

camaro15

yeah the blinkers work fine and yeah i already changed the bulbs

VinR1

iTrader: (17)

I had the exact same issue and it turned out to be the sockets

before, I had changed every bulb, ran new grounds, cleaned the terminals, etc

aftermarket sockets (that require you to carve out a chunk of your taillight to fit) were $12/ea at my local O'Reillys... so if you've gotta change 'em all out, it would probably be much cheaper to just find a good used taillight harness out of a 98+ 'bird so you can upgrade to the newer style bulbs

95 Firebird

Mine did the same thing when I first got it. New sockets fixed it.

camaro15

will sockets from a camaro work? theirs a lot at the local pick a part

VinR1

iTrader: (17)

I honestly dont know but the reason for the sockets going bad is corrosion, etc so ones that have been sitting out in a junkyard are prolly going to be just as bad, if not worse than the ones in the car now


I've seen several complete harnesses on eBay for under $40 and members on here are parting out cars every day... just get a good, complete harness

camaro15

so i checked out the sockets and one of them turns off, i touch the yellow wire that goes into the socket and it turns on. When i stop touching the wire it turns off then i pushed it back in and it stayed on so i left it like that. So is it possible for all the brake light sockets to go bad? what other ground does the tailights have besides the on by the trunk release?