Problem with reverse lights

[Dave 53]

Got an iWire harness and an email in to them, but looking for a quick answer. Certified light inspection on Monday and it's not gonna pass as is.

When I put the transmission into reverse, the right turn signal indicator on the dash comes on, not blinking. Both back up lights come on, but yellow, not white.

When not in reverse, turn signals work fine.

Any thoughts?

[Dave 53]

Fixed it. Since the right turn signal dash light was on, I played with the plug into the right rear light fixture and that fixed it. Some how the yellow and white wires must have been getting shorted together. Now I can't repeat the problem, so I was either dreaming it was broken or I'm a genius electrician. In any case, off to the next task...

[fletch]

Fixed it. Since the right turn signal dash light was on, I played with the plug into the right rear light fixture and that fixed it. Some how the yellow and white wires must have been getting shorted together. Now I can't repeat the problem, so I was either dreaming it was broken or I'm a genius electrician. In any case, off to the next task...

I believe you're a genius electrician. I also believe it's better to be lucky than good... at least that's what my dad told me. Good luck with the inspection!

[mikeb75]

I had an issue last time I was doing maintenance on the car (run an iWire harness also).
My e-mail to iWire:

I'm doing some car maintenance in the current downtime and I've noticed something strange with the reverse/turn signals:

when the left turn signal is active the passenger reverse light flashes at the same time.
when the car is in reverse gear the front driver front turn signal illuminates.
when the hazards are active the two rear turn signals flash (expected behavior).

reply:

Most likely cause is the terminals inside the taillight housings are touching causing weird outputs due to a cheap socket. Pull out the LED and push the pins further apart and that should solve it.

So, yes, you are absolutely a genius electrician!! You figured it out without needing to use a life-line.

[aquillen]

I fussed with those FFR tail light sockets (black ones), and yes the contacts can be so loose they flop up against each other, pretty sad product really. I scrapped mine after completely disassembling and epoxying them, still did not like the results. I dug out the Hella ones that came with the lamps (FFR says toss them), which for some crazy reason Hella (I guess) cuts off the third contact prong. I moto-tooled out the epoxy/filler around the third contact to expose enough to solder to it and managed to solder in connection wires. Then I patched the wiring out to the rest of the tail harness so it is hardwired without the plug. Not a big issue as the socket comes out of the housing to change a bulb anyway. Since that short third pin in particular is down in a hole at this point, I cut away part of the shell near that third pin so I could get to it with soldering tools easier. Then epoxy over the soldered connections to make them tough (used hot glue on the last set I did for another car). A screwy way to solve this but the Hella connector is a good one, and solves the flakey socket connection problem.

Getting the solder job done right is the hard step because that metal doesn't take solder readily. Use a tiny grinder/dental/diamond type grinder tip to clean the plating off that contact then good quality rosin solder and pretty hot iron tip to make the solder connection. But don't cook the pin out of the existing epoxy/potting compound in the shell. Not for a beginner but if you can do this you end up with a good socket that works properly with the lamps and should be reliable.