97 riv lighting issue

[mickel777]

I noticed an interesting, but minor, problem, with my 97 riv. I am hoping someone out there has had some experience, or, hopfully had the same problem, and came up with a solution. Here it is: at night with lights on, whenever I touch my brakes, I notice a small but percertable blink of my outside lights, it happens only when I tap the brake pedal. So then I noticed it with my interior lights, the panel lights. What actually happens is when I hit my brakes, the lights actually dim slightly (both inside and outside lights) and will stay dimmed until i release the brake pedal. Something is dropping the voltage down a fraction to cause this, but I haven't a clue where to look or where to begin. I would like to fix it because it is not supposed to do this, it is possible oncomming cars will think I am flashing them if I tap my brakes for whatever reason. Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this!

[mickel777]

Well, I figured out the problem with my lights, you might enjoy this. Since this car is new to me, I wanted to make sure the vent hoses were hooked up correctly to my battery to avoid the fumes from staying in the cab. Yes, they were broke off, so I was able to fix that problem in about 5 minutes. I glanced over at the neg cable where it bolts to the car floor, and noticed some arcing signs on the copper lug on the ground wire. I noticed that the bolt was not completely tight. (the car still started and ran, luckily) I got a socket and when I went to tighten the bolt, it snapped off practically after barely touching it. I was unable to get the rest of the bolt out from the nut plate, as it was darn near welded in, from the arcing. So, my only option was to drill a new hole and clean the paint off around the new whole(for a good connection) and used a bolt and nut to secure the lug to the frame/gnd of the car. Well, to my surprise my lighting issue as described above was gone, fixed!