Brake light and License plate lights
 

So a friend had some spare LED license plate light bulbs and i threw them on. The lights would be on and off one side would work and not the other until the other day while trying to readjust them to get it to turn on again and they both went out.

The next day I'm leaving work and unlock the car and notice that my driver side tail light isn't turning on with the unlock button. I check and it comes on when i press the brakes. So i bought some bulbs (both of the bulbs in the brake lights) and still the light wouldn't turn on. I checked the brake light fuse and they're intact.

No now my question is, WTF is going on! Is it a bigger electrical issue, i can hear a weird buzzing sound when i get in the car while the parking lights are on, after pressing the unlock button. Then, it goes away after i turn the key to ACC position

Please someone point me in the right direction.

Very hard to understand what you are trying to say. For the License Plate Bulbs, have you tried putting in replacement incandescent bulbs to see if it works ?


When you say "The next day I'm leaving work and unlock the car and notice that my driver side tail light isn't turning on with the unlock button", do you mean when you unlock your car, the drivers side Tail Light Bulb doesn't flash ? When I unlock my 2008 GSR, only the Turn Signal Bulbs flash and the Tail Light/Stop Light Bulbs don't flash.


For the Stop Lights, when you say "still the light wouldn't turn on.", do you mean after replacing the Stop Light Bulbs, they no longer light up when you apply the brake ?

Not sure where your confusion lies but I can dumb it down for you a bit. My Evo is a 2012 and when the unlock button is pressed, the turning lights flash as you've stated, but the parking lights along with the rear tail lights light up for a while...I'm sure any Evo owner can agree with me on that.

Secondly when I say "still the light wouldn't turn on" like I said in the previous post, after replacing the light and checking to see if it turned on with my headlights, it still did not turn on. The brakes still do light up the tail light but only the outside lamp. I believe the inner lights (that bolt on to the trunk) are just lights that turn on when the headlight switch is turned on, and those do not turn on at all.

Thanks for dumbing it down for me.

When I unlock my 08 GSR with the fob or door handle sensor, the turn lights flash but the parking lights/rear tail lights do not light up. Maybe Mitsubishi changed that for the newer years. That shouldn't affect the diagnosis though so I'll move on.


Do you still have the LED bulbs in your license plate lamps or have you put back the original/replacement incandescent bulbs in ?

Let's try this: Rotate your light switch until the parking lights come on.

• Do both driver's and passenger's side front parking lights come on ?
• Which of the 4 rear parking lights don't come on (outside passenger, inside passenger, outside driver, inside driver) ?
• With the brake pedal pressed, do all 3 brake lights come on (passenger, driver, center LED) ?
• Are both your license plate lights on ?

With the answer to all those questions, I can look at the wiring diagram and see if I can

When light switch is rotated to parking lights:
- Driver side parking light is off. Passenger is on.

- Of the 4 rear parking lights, inside driver is off, outside driver is off, passenger side all 4 are on.

- when brake pedal is pressed all 3 brake lights come on.

- Licence plate lights are both off (keep in mind I have not yet been able to test putting new incandescent bulbs in there...car is at the shop for some fuel issues but will do as soon as I get it back)

Both license plate bulbs are on the same circuit as the left front/rear parking lights. Best guess right now is if one of the license plate bulbs are shorted, then none of the other mentioned lights will work.


To test that theory, try this after you get your car back:

• Remove both LED bulbs from license plate lights
• Turn your light switch to parking light position
• If driver's side tail light and front position lights still do not work, make a post and say that they still do not work even after removing both LED bulbs from license plate lights (your problem is likely not because of the LED license plate bulbs and there is also no need to continue to next step). If all lights work normally after removing both LED bulbs from license plate lights, continue to next step (your problem is because of one or both of the LED bulbs from the license plate lights).
• Put one LED bulb back into license plate light. If it lights up, continue to next step. If it does not light up, reverse position and try again. If it lights up now, continue to next step. If it does not light up, it is most likely a bad LED bulb. Replace that bulb.
• Put the other LED bulb back into license plate light. If it lights up, then everything is fixed. If it does not light up, reverse position and try again. If it lights up now, then everything is fixed. If it does not light up, it is most likely a bad LED bulb. Replace that bulb.

Hope those steps make sense and are not confusing.

Ok, yes that does make sense. Ill give the instructions a try and let you know the results. Hopefully ill get the car back by late next week!

Very much appreciate the effort to help! {thumbup}