Taillight problem

Drew Perez

Drew Perez

New Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2017
Messages
21
Location
Bridgewater, NJ, United States
I recently purchased a 98' TJ, and I decided to add taillight guards to it. I had to disconnect the taillight to install the guards. Ever since then, my right taillight has become dimmer and flashes faster than usual. I have replaced the bulbs twice, and when i removed the taillight , i removed some molding from the wiring.

I would love some help!
 
Drew Perez said:
I recently purchased a 98' TJ, and I decided to add taillight guards to it. I had to disconnect the taillight to install the guards. Ever since then, my right taillight has become dimmer and flashes faster than usual. I have replaced the bulbs twice, and when i removed the taillight , i removed some molding from the wiring.

I would love some help!
Click to expand...

This is due to a bad ground, guarantee it. Your taillights are grounded by the screws that hold the taillight housing into the body. You need to get some new screws if the old ones are corroded, and you should probably sand down the daylight guards in the areas where the screws go through them, so that they can get a better ground connection.

This is the solution, I'm 100% certain of it. Definitely not the first time I've seen this issue come up, and the above is always what solves it.
 
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Chris said:
This is due to a bad ground, guarantee it. Your taillights are grounded by the screws that hold the taillight housing into the body. You need to get some new screws if the old ones are corroded, and you should probably sand down the daylight guards in the areas where the screws go through them, so that they can get a better ground connection.

This is the solution, I'm 100% certain of it. Definitely not the first time I've seen this issue come up, and the above is always what solves it.
Click to expand...
Spot on!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
 
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Chris said:
This is due to a bad ground, guarantee it. Your taillights are grounded by the screws that hold the taillight housing into the body. You need to get some new screws if the old ones are corroded, and you should probably sand down the daylight guards in the areas where the screws go through them, so that they can get a better ground connection.

This is the solution, I'm 100% certain of it. Definitely not the first time I've seen this issue come up, and the above is always what solves it.
Click to expand...

The tailight guards came with new screws, and i used those i believe. If it isnt that is there any other solutions?
 
Drew Perez said:
The tailight guards came with new screws, and i used those i believe. If it isnt that is there any other solutions?
Click to expand...
Those tail light guards cost more than replacement tail lights do and they cause grounding issues as you have discovered. They're not really going to protect your tail lights either if you back into something, they're not that strong. I'd remove them and get a refund or sell them on Craigslist.
 
Drew Perez said:
The tailight guards came with new screws, and i used those i believe. If it isnt that is there any other solutions?
Click to expand...

That is the issue, it's a guarantee, I promise. Put the taillights on without the guards and you'll notice they work just fine. These taillight guards are known to cause issues like this, which is why most of us don't run them.

Like I said, the taillights ground to the body, and with that aftermarket "guard" there, it's creating a ground, but not a very good one, hence the dim lights.

I removed mine from my old TJ, since the previous owner had installed them.
 
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