93 camry rear left tailight failure any help???

[excoupe23]

I have a 93 camry auto and I have had the tailight failure symbol lite on my dash for some time now. I checked the third brake light and it works, the lights on the rear panel between the lights work. I pulled both tailights off and seen the driver side #1157 brake stop light was no good so I replaced it and I thought that would take care of the light on the dash but while driving it was still lite.

My question is what else should I check because after that I looked at the wires on the left side of the trunk hinge and checked to see all wires are not frayed or broken. I pulled the cover off the wires to see if any wires were exposed and it is good. What else could it be, any help would be appreciated.

[Brian R.]

Make sure you installed the brake light bulb correctly. It is easier than you think to install it 180 degrees off and get the wrong contacts touching.

[KimMG]

Look at the base of the replacement bulb and the base of the original bulb. On volvos if you have the original silver base bulb on one side and brass colored replacement on the other side, the light on the dash will stay on because the bulbs have a different resistance. The solution was just to make sure both sides were using the same bulb. Make sure the contacts in the socket and on the bulb are not corroded.

[excoupe23]

I actually replaced both 1157 rear tailight bulbs and now all the rear lights work fine and the brake lights are good. Even though I am satisfied with that, the brake light failure lamp is still on the dash. What else do you think can be causing that if all the lights work?

[chuey11]

I Struggled with this problem for 3 years. I tore apart the light failure sensor circuit. After replacing all lamps involved indicator on dash still came on. I did a current ballance test with my DVM, right side pulled 5 more milliamps. I sprayed contact cleaner on all sockets and to my amazement light on dash went out!!!

[landlocked]

We had a similar problem on a 94 Camry with the dash warning light coming on when we hit the brakes. It turned out to be a weak spot in the wiring that you originally looked at.

Opening and closing the trunk caused the wiring that you mentioned to bend and weaken over time. The wire can break internally without any visible damage. Bumps in the road can open and close the frayed wire.

Then the dash warning light will stay on until you turn off the engine even if contact is made again. We were going crazy trying to trouble shoot the open connection.

We could not make the one brake light fail with the trunk open and flexing the wires. Eventually I talked my wife (only 115 lbs then) to get in the trunk with the lid closed and flex the wires while I applied the brake.

We finally located the weak area and replaced about 12 inches of several wires subject to the flexing.

We were just amateurs that stumbled on to the problem.

Good luck.

[excoupe23]

thanks for the advice to both of you guys. I will try the contact cleaner and then check for the wires because I wasnt thinking that of course they can be broken or weak internally and look fine to me on the outside.