Hi everyone,

Wanted to see if anyone had any further ideas for me so I could troubleshoot on my own.

The issue cropped up a couple of weeks ago when I turned on the lights on the car and the dash told me to check my taillight. I checked out the rear and sure enough the right rear was out. The brake light and emergency lights did work however.

I thought it would be a simple fix so I brought the P21/5W and P21/4W bulbs and swapped out both the rear tail light/fog lights. Still the bulbs would not turn on afterwards.

I checked the fuses for both rear tail lights and they were good. If it were bad nothing would work on the right tail at all.

I then suspected the cable bloom may have went bad for the tail light. The entire wiring harness seen here:



I then took my right tail light and plugged it into the socket for the left taillight and found that all lights were functional on that side so the issue is not the cable bloom but the wiring itself leading into the engine bay.

I whipped out my 997 Workshop manual and looked at the wiring diagram but can't really make heads or tails of it.

Attached is a picture of the central power/wiring for the right side that has an issue as well as a picture of the right taillight plugged into the left taillight's socket fully functional. When it is plugged into the right tail light socket the bottom row of bulbs don't turn on (brake light is functional).

Has anyone else ran into the issue? Any suggestions for further troubleshooting or should I bring it to the shop at this point? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

That's why I take my car to the dealer if there's ever a problem. I don't have time to waste looking for an issue and trying multiple times to fix it. Let the pros do their magic.

 

Will be taking it to the shop soon. Switching out bulbs and removing the taillight is easy (one screw) so I wanted to do some basic troubleshooting and not have the shop waste time on that.

 

Alan,

I am having the same problem with my 2006 997 Cabriolet. The left brake light is not functioning correctly. The bulb is fine, i put in the bulb and it lights up with the lights on, but when I lock it into place it turns off or goes faint. If I push on the brake the brake filament may light up but then the bulb will not work after the brake is let off.

Did you find a problem in the wiring or socket? What was your fix if you remember?

Thanks,

Rich

 

I agree with you on your Diy decision.

Sometimes, why travel to the dealer, wait in line, wait in the waiting area, etc. when a possible DIY would only take minutes.

 

I also had similar problem on my 997, I went to napa auto and got dual set of brake light bulbs, it only worked when I replaced both bulbs at once.