Left rear signal and both lower brake lights out.

Hello again fellow Chev Suburban owners. I own a 95 Chev 6.5 L diesel 4X4 3/4ton Suburban. Problem I'm hoping someone here is familair with is...

My rear left signal light is out. The front left signal flashes double time as does the green arrow inside. The right signals work as usual inside and out. At the same time both brake lights went out, yet the upper center of the rear window brake light works fine.

Diesel engine shop was nice enough to check out the bulb and the left signal flasher (cuz it was in there anyway getting the fuel return lines changed), but are not into electrical. Husband never liked my Suburban and prefers not to do electrical either. Is also hoping it costs me an arm and a leg to teach me a lesson, cuz he wanted to get rid of it years ago.

:1zhelp:

One signal light on rear and no brake light points to turn signal switch or brake light switch or brake light fuse bad.
Will both rear signals flash with 4 way flasher?

Someone needs to get a test light and a wiring diagram and check for brake light into turn signal switch and out of it to rear lights.
And for turn signals out of it to all signal lights.

My rear left signal light is out. The front left signal flashes double time as does the green arrow inside. The right signals work as usual inside and out. At the same time both brake lights went out, yet the upper center of the rear window brake light works fine. :1zhelp:

From your post I'm going to say that the "turn" & "brake" fuses are good. Also because your center upper brake lite is working the brake switch is good.

That leaves us with the turn signal (multi function switch) as the left & right brake light signals goes thru it. The turns and brake lites are the same bulb and filament.

Another area is the rear lite assemblies themselves. They are actually a circuit board with very poor soldering from the factory.

Hope this helps.

First thank you for responding.

Nope LEFT (rear also) 4 way flasher is not working. So it's the left rear signal, left rear 4 way flasher and both bottom brake lights that dont work. All others do. Just now changed the fuses and it makes no difference.

So we are getting down to this... brake light switch or turn signal (multi function switch), that rear light assembly (although both tail lights and back up lights are working??) or some sort of broken conection between them. Can one of you explain where these switches are? Are they costly? Are they easy to get to and change. Is this a small job or big time consuming beast of a chore. It would help to know this for I am going to have to hire someone. The diesel shop guy said to check the ground wire, do you think it's worth checking? If so your going to have to tell me where it is. Taking notes, thinking the more clues the better for the person I take it to.

Update

So I call Napa, that multi switch is over $300! and it takes 3 hours to put in (special tools, air bag crap), estamate is over $700!! So out I went, ground sheet and all, get a look at anything I may see. Well there is a thick back cord sized wire with some sort of cheap black plastic protector on it haning down from next to where you would fill it with diesel, between the bumper and the back tire just there. There is a metal braket hanging off of this thick wire too. Could not see where this metal braket used to be bolted on. Only that everything is muddy except an area around the hole in this braket. THEN...

hanging down on the back for all to see, near the Lic plate thingy. Coming from between the hitch thingy (it's the rest of the part that I put my kids bike rack into, appears to be bolted onto the frame). Well between that big iron hitch piece and the big plastic gas tank... hanging there are two black plastic connectors. One is bigger and connects 4 wires. A light green, a dark green, a black and a white. The white is broken off at the connector, loose end just hanging there. The other connector is smaller and connects 2 wires, both black. One of these black wires is broken off also.

I vaugely remember seeing these connectors hanging there before, ice snow and mud chunks hang off everything and I have a habit of kicking the big stuff off. I also saw what I thought was a nest but is actually grass and mud packed all in the area. There old electrical tape unraving there too, it's wierd cuz I havent seen blue plastic tape before.

If a ground wire appears quite flat, flexible and fabric like when wet, I saw that too, it is securely fastened to a bolt.

Am I on to something? Are these the all important wires? I have an appointment at Napa for 1:00 tomorrow. Guy is almost sure it is this multifunction switch. Like thats gotta be the worst thing that can happen?? Said he's replaced them many times in these suburbans. I live in Suburban town, all the dutch have 12 kids and drive em. My husband is Dutch, I'm not and we have 3 kids, it's the best I could do.

Proper testing before throwing parts at it.
A test light can test the turn signal switch.
Get a good wiring diagram.
Check for turn signals and brake lights out of turn signal switch.
If that checks good go to rear lights and see if they have signal lights to them,
If signal lights out of turn signal switch and no signal lights to rear lights.
And
If wires hanging in the rear better fix the wires,
I would say you on the right tract on the hanging wires anlso check for trailer plugin wires bad or broken or undone.

A little testing and checking and looking can save you big bucks.
Good Luck

Hey good news! Master of the heated shop came home last night, heard everything I checked and saw what I found. 1/2 hour in the shop and it's all systems go. He soldered something?? A pigtail?

The left signal, left hazard light and both lower brake lights where all together on the white broken wire of the four in the larger connector. The smaller connector's small black broken wire of two ended up being my license plate light! That hasnt worked for a couple years now. Bonus. Ron said he could see thats it's been discontected for a long time and where it rusted the metal in a dot where it was touching. This is probably also the solution to that mystery shock I'd get every so often touching the outer door handle. Thought it was a little strong for being one of those static shocks that light fires at gas stations.

Thanks for getting me courious enough to get out there, or rather... under there. Saved me from a $90 per hour shop visit today and saved Ron some time. Thanks again.

PS: Just thought of something, will check this out on the roads later today. My volt meter dash guage for the longest time was a little funny. Hit a bump volts jumped up (just slightly), hit a railroad track and the guage would drop. Had people test the alternator over the time, always seemed to work fine. People told me these dash guages didnt always work, dealership said it's a $600 package and to basically forget about it. Wonder if this little light wire had anything to do with it.

You are welcome and thanks for posting back how it went and the fix.

Yes a little rime spent checking it out can save big bucks.
Good luck