ttuling

Here's what was wrong on my 2001:

- A bad solder joint for pin 2 on one of the connectors in the front light. In fact all the solder connections looked dull, like they'd not been heated sufficiently. So they got resoldered. Before this was done, working the front switch would sometimes let the rear light come on with door open.

- Some bad solder or bus bar connection in the rear light. The rear interior light still wouldn't work sometimes, though manual reading lights did. After prying the rear light housing out of the headliner, more dull cold solder joints were visible and pushing on the circuit board would make the light work.

To get good access to the rear lamp's circuit board, you'll need to remove four transverse bus bars. Take out the interior (but not reading) light bulbs first, since their ground connections are part of one of the four bus bars. Then pry at the ends of each bus bar with pliers, using a nearby part of the housing or a switch as a fulcrum to avoid bending the bar when it breaks free (I bent the first one that I simply pulled on with pliers). Then you can resolder the connections on the circuit board if they look suspicious or measure badly, and put some Stabilant on the bus bars' connection sites before reassembly if you're so inclined. Sorry I don't know specifically which connection was bad on my rear light -- it was working when I took it out of the car.

Tom