ive posted a few times in the past couple of days to figure out what is wrong with tail lights, everything else works but tail lamps, brake lights work, and orange driving lights do not as well, i started tearing s*** apart tonight as being the 5th night in a row working to find it past 11pm found this , the right sidemarker had something burn it or it melted the sealant around the wire, tested it out, turneed lights on viola it worked, shut it off pieced my G back to gether and started to drive it and they didnt work again? anyone have any idea what it could be, im miserable working on this so late everynight and not being able to drive my baby lol

 

Props for being so dedicated and spending so much time on such a stupid issue. If it were me after the first time i'd just take it to a shop to get it repaired.

 

Thanks yeah I won't take my car to any mechanic in the town I live in unless it ABSOLUTELY has to

 

It's hard to see in the picture but if those wires are melted and you just repaired it without fixing the cause then check for blown fuse. If it's burnt and you blew the fuse you have a short. I would plug it all in and try each taillights function till it blows the fuse again should tell you which circuit the short is in. At that point replace the wire, or go buy a short finder to pinpoint exactly where the short is. It seems like the wiring on these cars is not so good as there are lots of post about things not working and it being a wire issue. Im sure there is a rub point in your taillights harness where the positive voltage wire is shorting against your body causing this. It worries me that the wire melted though. Did you replace the fuse with the correct amp rating? Raising the amp rating of a fuse is NEVER a good idea as this will allow the wires to pass much more electrons causing more friction which causes heat, which causes melted wires.

056

 

Yes replaced with about 26 fuses once I'm done figuring it out I'm taking a picture of all the fuses I've gone through lol, what is a short finder(pin pointer) exactly? A multimeter? I have a multimeter and my daily job is working with electronics from communications an navigational equipment from the av-8b harriers(jet). I know electronics fairly decent, I can't turn my wad lights on at all with out the fuse blowing! Tonight I'm going to start t the tail lights and pull all the wiring and utilize my multimeters and follow it up to the engine bay, that's the last thing I can try everything else I've done -_-...appreciate the help gents!

 

Short finder is inductive so you run it along the harness and it indicates a short location. Here is a link to one I have.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewi...assified=false

You can use a multimeter as well just remember anywhere you poke your lead into a wire to test is a new location for corrosion to happen in the future. That's the benefit with a short finder you don't have to poke holes in your insulation that protects your wires.

056

 

Well I now know what I am buying right after work today lol!! Very very helpful and I appreciate the help/ideas you through out there you have no idea!!! I'll let the thread know tonight what I found out afterwords!

 

Ok now I'm extremely frustrated with this damn car, had to re wire the entire passenger wiring harness two nights ago because that one mentioned before had been shorted all the way up to the fuse box, getting into other wires for random things along there, fixed it viola it worked!! Went out with the wife tonight cruised through the Nissan dealership and they don't work again, the orange parking lamps work when I alarm it, not when turned on, as well as the tail lights! What's going on I'm extremely frustrated right now because of it, I spent a whole week everyday working on it now I'm back to square one

 

Wires just don't burn up for no reason. You have a positive 12 volt wire that's chaffed somewhere and grounding out to chassis or arcing to another wire.

You're going to have to have a method to locate the short and fix it. You can repair those wires time and again, and they'll look good for a minute, and then the short will cause them to burn up again.

 

I know what a short is! But Yeah I know it's just time consuming, stressful, and fustrating and I've been out past midnight every night with work at 6am trying to fix it, don't trust any dealerships or mechanics out here ya know

 

I had a short on my left sidemarker recently that coised my tail loghts and dash light to not work. I had no idea where it was coming from so i took it to the mechanic and they replaced the shorted wire in the sidemarker

 

I did too as well, I gave up I put about 50 hours total in a week on it slowly replacing things that have been modified, every little thing I could think of!! I'm in aviation electronics on communications and navigations of harrier jets, so electrical I'm pretty familiar with, but this is blowing my mind, I took a week off(paid vacation that is ) to tear it down take apart the entire circuit on the tail lights side markers parking lamps, and if that doesn't do it, then I will fork out the money for a mechanic -_- ....I hate taking MY car to a mechanic and saying I can't figure it out lol, it's something so simple but yet it's not figured out yet lol

 

Tore it down pretty good today! Entire trunk back seat are and engine bay and fuse panel by the clutch...couldn't find a single thing, so I have the repair manual for it did voltage tests on the IPDM and BCM both checked out find, couldn't find a single thing to tell me which one was the relay for that circuit finally found it and it was weird...anyone that can explain testing the relay, the male part where it plugs into part, normally open and normally closed lines, if any are in series or parallel, if the combination switch( turn on switch on steering column(off, auto, on,etc.)) if that can short, I think I've narrowed it down to bein the IPDM or BCM which is upsetting lol thank you for the help gents

 

Well, I'm fed up-_- turned out there's burnt up wire on the inside of IPDM(yes I tore it down completely) I also tore down the BCM completely, both are apparently "bad"..... I did howerever look at every piece of wiring in the g...everything is an understatement...literally miserable) the GOOD managed a sexy complete wire tuck, and DIY mods since I'm in here tearing and cranking away! Will post pictures for suggestions, outlook, ideas etc! Still trying to mod some tubing in there