nyrobbie77

Over the weekend I changed the oil and then proceeded to give the car a good cleaning. The trunk mat has always been pretty dirty and after climbing in/out when I replaced the fuel pump, it got a bit worse.

After pulling out the trunk mat/spare tire cover, I notice what looked like a small twig stuck under the passenger corner near the tail lights. I try to vacuum it up but it doesn't come up. Upon closer inspection, I notice it is not a twig, but a brown broken wire. I open up the taillight inspection covers and notice it is routed back there to a harness that goes behind a grounding point. Not sure where the other missing piece is, perhaps it was supposed to head over to the driver side?

I also notice that the corner marker light is hanging loose and burned out. I also see there is a white with blue stripe wire electrical taped to the harness of the marker bulb but not connected to anything. I then see that the marker light got so hot it melted the tail light housing! I check the driver side and sure enough that side is melted and burned out as well.

Obviously there is some sort of wiring issue here. Questions are, where was that brown wire supposed to go to? Is that white/blue striped wire factory? Doesn't seem to be as it is just taped in place but there is no other end.

Pics below.

VinceR020

Oh man that's not good, but I'm glad you found that discovery. As far as bulbs go, im looking to covert to LED on the tail light because conventional bulbs give off WAY TOO MUCH HEAT and a accidental occurrence would happen especially that. I just happen to have extra LED bulbs from my interior lights LED project i did months back and wanted to test it out on it, but i wanna get all the bulb sizes for all (Turn signal, rear fog, markers, brake lights) so that i can get the LED variants and put them on. Ive never seen anyone converted their D2 tail light bulbs to LED so i want to give it a shot.

The brown wire, i would guess that the last owner probably forgot to take that wire out, but it does belong with that light fixture. if all the lights appears to function good then my guess is that wire comes from that light fixture.

tozoM8

brown wire is ground.

VinceR020

I assumed it was ground, but my question is where did that extra ground wire came from? MY guess is either from a damaged light fixture as pictured or it could have came from the plug that goes on the bottom of the tail light unit.

To me it looks like a extra wire. I remember replacing my outer tail light on my car the other day and i never seen a unoccupied wire before. I'll check later on and see

abjb

The wire work looks like something I would have done a couple of decades ago installing a wiring harness for a trailer.
Do you have a trailer hitch?


The light sockets look like they may have had can-bus LED's, they run very VERY hot (much hotter than regular incandescent). I melted a socket last year with one.

nyrobbie77

It is definitely a ground wire. It is part of the factory harness but I don't know where the other end goes. In the first picture below, I took all the covers off opening up the area. It may be hard to see, but up near where the fuses are, there are some more cut/taped wires and a scotch lock. I never had a hitch on the vehicle and I don't see any other marks that would indicate it had one. I'm not sure what the duct tape is from, certainly that is not factory.

What is that red wire w/a looped handle for? It seems to go to the fuel door?

Second picture is on the opposite side near the power antenna. There is the same brown ground wire with a plug on it, but nothing plugged into it. I'm not sure if this is where that wire is supposed to go, or if it is for optional equipment I don't have. Maybe that ground wire was just terminated somewhere and it got ripped out of it's location.

You can also see that someone replaced the factory power antenna with an aftermarket one. it "works" but gets stuck from time to time going down.

I tested the wiring at the burnt bulbs, both still have power and will light with new bulbs. I'm wondering if someone just put the wrong bulbs in it and they burned up, unrelated to the ground wire.

What's with the bundle of snakes coax cable? I do have the factory amp in that spot, but do not have a CD changer. Seems like that cable is a bit excessive for a factory changer.

Last question - I was checking the fuses in the truck to make sure none were blown. Now whenever I turn on the car, I get that stupid "blurrrp" noise like the cell phone turned on. The car phone was removed a few years ago and hasn't made that noise since.

Thanks all