Car rear lights left and right

Each vehicle has at least one taillight. Motor cars and trucks have even two. In the first place they serve for safety, ensuring visibility in the dark and in bad visibility conditions, like fog or rain. Red lights serve as orientator for the cars driving behind you. They help relatively exactly estimate dimensions and car position in front of you. Taillights also serve for orientation when car moves in reverse. But their visibility is limited.

Inside modern taillights there are several lamps in one housing. Among them are back parking lights, stop-lights, backup alarms, rear fog lights, turn indicators. Depending on construction and manufacturer you can modularly substitute details. Taillight stops working because of a burned-out lamp. For many cars it is not a problem to substitute the lamp. But in cars of some manufacturers you need to take the trouble to unfix the light and to change the lamp. For reasons of safety it is the best variant always to have in your car reserve lamps to substitute them in any moment.

In car repair shop they will substitute the lamp in several minutes. To substitute a broken taillight won’t take a lot of time. Taillight may be broken by vandals or may be hit by road metal. In this case body suffers. Problems with lights also may be caused by water. If it gets into the light, it may become the cause of short circuit. In our Internet store there is a big variety of car parts. Here you can find parts for many makes of cars. If you search for transmission main drive gear bearing, brake blocks, window raisers, fenders, horns, accelerator or turn indicator relay interrupter, you can easily find them here. You need to use fast search, because in our online shop prices are far lower then in a service centre.

How to detect rear light fault

Check of the rear light can be performed on your own as well as with the help of the car experts. First of all, inspect the part visually: it should have no visible damages. It is a good practice to diagnose lamps, electric circuit, fuse, relay coil. Service station experts carry out inspections using a specialized device – a multimeter. The latter allows to spot malfunctions exactly.

You can notice that the rear light requires diagnostics by the following signs:

• lamps in the light are replaced often;
• condensed water accumulates inside the light cluster;
• some lamps are completely or partly broken;
• light flickers or turns on with delay;
• lamp light is dim.

Causes of Tail lights malfunctions

Due to its location, rear lights are at high risk of mechanical damages. Hitting by stones and foreign objects, parking faults, carelessness of the other road users – all this may lead to appearance of cracks, scratches and chips on the components surfaces. Abrasive wear may happen due to poor care, for examples, at dirt sweeping with the help of the dry cloth.

Often, wiring integrity violation may become the key factor of rear lights malfunctions. It is usually caused by soiling, effect of moisture to contacts and connectors, insulation damages, variations of voltage in the electric circuit, poor connection of the elements, installation of the poor-quality components and the other factors.

Many rear lights malfunctions are caused by loss of tightness by their bodies. Moisture and dirt, got inside, are causing destructive influence to reflector and contacts and become a reason for lights misting. Instability of voltage in circuit leads to frequent burning-out of bulbs, LEDs and fuses; and the use of lights of too high wattage – to lamp holder melting.

Repair of the tail light

Usually, repair of rear lights includes replacement of burnt-out lamps, lamp holders, cleaning of contacts and connectors. Sometimes for defect removal there is no need for component dismantling: all you have to do is gain access to the back lid of the light body, remove it, take out the lamp holder and remove the bulb from it by releasing the clips. The damaged part should be replaced with the intact one, and contacts and connectors – cleaned from dirt and oxides. In some cases, replacement of the defective components should be performed only after light cluster demounting.

Replacement of the rear light

If it is not possible to repair the light, then it needs to be replaced. For this, perform the following actions:

• disconnect the wire from the battery negative terminal;
• unfasten clips and remove the cover from the service opening in the luggage compartment trim panel;
• release the clip and disconnect the wiring terminal block from the connector of the replaced part;
• unscrew the nuts fastening the rear light to the car body;
• uncouple the mounting bracket and component fastenings;
• dismantle the light from the car;
• mount the working part, for that perform the same steps in the reversed order.