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Working on this 2000 excursion. Tail lights/brake lights are screwy. Tail lights are very dim. I could tap on the third brake light and one bulb would light up. I replaced the blown bulbs. Lights very dim with the three bulbs in. Pushing in the brake pedal lights the third light up,but the regular lights go out. Turn signals light up and pulse the third brake light and license plate lights. Looked at the signals and replaced the bulbs. Right signal had a mouse nest behind that and a chewed through reverse light wire. Fixed that, still doing the same. Need to know where the ground is on the rear lights or where to run a new ground.....thanks guys! The ex thanks you too!
Excellent news is that the flasher fixed the turn signals and tail lights- brake lights are still however no good, 3rd row gets really bright, tail lights go out completely. On to checking grounds!
Pulling the rear bumper this weekend. I figure if a mouse chewed through one wire, it probably wasn't only one. Going to check the whole wire harness out first.
That pic above isn't the switch for brake light, that is under the dash.
What you do have in that pic is a factory recall issue that has been fixed (by adding fuses, it is for cruise control). And a lot of rust. I'd definitely closely inspect your frame/body grounds.
It is NOT the light sockets, it's the common ground between where all those sockets' ground wires splice together and the frame rail.
This isn't rocket science to diagnose, he just has to get under the truck and check it instead of putzing around on other stuff in the wrong area. He's been told specifically where to check.
While it's possible a critter ate the wires, it's far more likely that Mother Nature and road salt are to blame (corrosion) given the sate of the metal under the hood.
So tonight the new ground went in- cleaned up the areas needed, put in a 4 guage main ground to the engine along with cleaning up the old grounds that existed. No change in the rear lights- still goofy and all of them flash when the taillights are on and you put a turn signal on- including the license plate lights..... Bumper coming off this weekend. Even though it didn't fix the issue- I'm really happy I ran that new line- much better than the older wiring.
I'm chasing down the same symptom, somewhere there's a short in the circuit for the rear tail lamps. I do not see a ground following the harness from the left rr housing down across inside the bumper. Nothing is pinched, chaffed, or broken. Is it worth looking next at the switch on the brake peddle and work back from there?
2003 Excursion, EB edition.