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taillight keeps burning out!

B

blakelock

NAXJA Forum User
Location
alexandria, VA
Howdy,
I've replaced one of my taillight bulbs in my '95 Cherokee 3 times in the last year. The bulbs go into a small receptable which pops into the larger taillight housing. Then you give the recepticle a 1/4 turn and the new bulb is installed. I did notice that the plastic housing where the bulb receptacle goes in is a bit mishapened (not melted but it's very difficult to pop the recepticle in).

Any ideas why the bulbs keep buring out? Does the the taillight housing have to be sealed from the environment? Maybe the mishapened opening is allowing moisture to leak in.

blakelock
 
take her apart yet again and use some silicone dielectric grease on it, it will ward off mositure and corrosion and aid in longer bulb life
 
thanks for the suggestion heeperman. Should I put the silicone grease between the light bulb fixture and the taillight housing or actually between the metal portion of the bulb itself and the fixture that the bulb plugs into.
 
Should I put the silicone grease between the light bulb fixture and the taillight housing or actually between the metal portion of the bulb itself and the fixture that the bulb plugs into.
Click to expand...


bulb connection
 
I have two things to suggest, new harness and check the ground.

The harness sounds like it became damaged. I went to the junk yard and picked up a harness since the guy who owned it before butched it trying to hook up the trailer light kit. Remove the tail light and then follow the harness up into the body, you will find the connector, you can pull it toward the opening and unhook the old tail light harness. With a new/salvage harness just install it, test to make sure the lights work and reinstall.

I got my harness at the junk yard but the dealer part may be resonable, just check.

People over look the ground but that as important as the voltage supply. I had the inner panel off once and found the rear ground point, it is behind the spare time mount. You may want to remove the terminal, clean off the paint, apply some ox-gard and reassemble. Ox-gard is a conductive grease, do not use dielectric grease, it insulates. I would wait on checking the ground until you install the new harness and try it for several months. The new harness may solve your problems.
 
thanks for all the input. I found something strange yesterday when I took apart the taillight. There are 4 holes on the back of the taillight assembly. From the bottom, they are: reverse light, hazard/blinker, EMPTY HOLE, then the top position is a 2 filament bulb for taillights and brake lights.

Sealing the brake light bulb to the housing with silicone won't help much with a completely open hole jsut below it. Is there supposed to be a plug here? Both of my taillights have this empty bulb position.

thanks.
blakelock
1995 Cherokee Sport 4WD
 
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