2000 Venture Brake Light

I have a 2000 Venture and the driver side brake light keeps burning out. I've looked at the wiring and socket, and they seem okay. Don't really know what the problem might be. I've gone through a lot of bulbs though, anyone have any idea?

Thanks

Probably a short or ground issue on one or both rear circuit bds. (tailight assemblies). Make sure that your plug in harness connector hasn't shorted as well, as my 97's did. Both rear brake lights out, only third brake light on, as well as ABS and TCS idiot lights on. Cruise control not working either. You may have some or all of these symptoms, but it is probably the start of them. Pull the wire harness end off the plug to see if the middle contact (black wire of the harness) looks defective in anyway. If it looks a little burnt or its mating plug does, you have the famous short. If you buy new circuit bds (taillight assembly) only to solve your problem, goop weatherproof silicone caulk over the connection on both sides once you prove it works to prevent this shorting out from happening again. Design flaw by GM. Who would ever place any connection in the direct drain path of the rear hatch. The other option you have which costs about $5 is to label the harness wires that plug into the circuit board as to their location on the mating plug, cut the plug off the harness, attach connectors to each wire, cut down all 4 sides of the circuit bd plug about 3/8th to 1/2 in exposing the 5 pins. Be sure to clean off the shorted middle, thin prong/pin carefully. Attach the mating connector from the location markings you did earlier. Test the brakes, notice that your ABS/TCS dash lights are now out, and apply weatherproof silicone to the connections so that water, etc cannot collect at the harness or connections. The McGyver way, but my circuit has worked for over a year incident-free. email me separately at [email protected] to discuss more. Thought my ABS or Traction Control was on the fritz, but low and behold, only after looking this up on AF did I discover the problem and fix. Keep us posted as to your solution so that we can all learn.

Thanks for the info. I checked the plug, it looks good. No discoloration or burnt smell. The first socket, down from the plug, is what is giving me problems. I got it working tonight because the van is getting inspected tomorrow. The socket was partially melted, so I scraped the melted plastic from the socket and the bulb and had to adjust the connector with a screw driver. The light is working again, but it doesn't last long. It seems weird that this is happening, almost like the connection is getting too hot and causing the bulb portion to melt. Any idea's what would be causing that? It's only that one socket and I don't have any issues with other lights.

Thanks