2000 malibu tail light trouble

I am having trouble with the tail lights on my 2000 malibu. The trouble started when my wife was driving at night, not far from where she started she hit the breaks and the head lights went dead, this is all the information i could get from her , so i went trouble shooting and came to the conclusion that the alternator was craping out i could unplug the battery wyle the car was running and at first everything was allright , the car would run but when i hit the breaks the car would die. So i changed the alternator , tryed agan and still i have the same trouble the car dies when i hit the breaks. So now im thinking a short in the break wireing, i check the tail lights and find the pasenger side does not work, i checked the fuses and the break light switch on the break petal and all seems to be ok. I switched bulbs with the other side and they are good.

what could be the trouble, is ther a relay between the break switch and the tail lights, what else can i check pleese help .......

We were told last week by a GM dealer mechanic that it's possible the logic board or circuit board for the tail lights might be bad (we were in there on an unrelated problem and they reminded us that the tail light was out - when we said, yes, we knew, we had the bulb but just hadn't switched it - he told us this). He said it's a very common problem. If the bulb switch didn't work, then that's what it is.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

CHECK FOR WATER IN THE TAIL LIGHT!
Malibu has a very bad tail light design. Water from the trunk junctions is funneld to pour directly over the tail lights, which have flimsy plastic tabs that can easly pop loose. I ended up with a tail light half full of water only a week or so after buying my Malibu!

It can cause a lot of damage to the tail light assembly, as well as the connector on the wiring harness.

VERY BAD DESIGN! It can easily be fixed by mounting a small flap on top of the housing to guide water away from the seal. It is a good idea to at least add some duct tape to help keep water away from the seal.

Many malibus have this problem with water getting into the taillights. GM has issued a TSB on the problem. You are proably going to have to replace the circuit board in the tail light.

The brake light failure is usually the result of the bulb socket union. The bulbs vibrate in the sockets and eventually build up some resistance that overheats the union that then melts the plastic on the bulbs; this is the Circuit Board problem. I’d expect that this would happen to any of the lamps in the tail light assembly. The Circuit Board is the electrical part of the tail light assembly it’s easy to replace but it’s possible to repair if you have the inclination. One thing I’d suggest is when reassembling the Circuit Board you put some white Lithium grease on all the lamp bases before installing and also wipe the globes of the lamps to remove finger prints and oil.

My 2003 recently developed this strange problem with the tail lights..Possibly from water being inside.. I just replaced all the bulbs and noticed the circuit board was rusted inside the connections. but when in reverse only the passenger light works, the green left turn signal comes on, and then when I put the left turn signal on only the front lights flash, but the brake lights work... does this sound like a circuit board issue, and also where can I find just the circuit board, everyone wants to sell the whole assembly.. :screwy: