Tail Lights Not Working?

[casper98]

I have a 1999 chevrolet k1500 5.3 4x4. The tail lights no longer come on except when I brake, what could be causing this? I checked the fuses and there okay,bulbs all work cause the tail lights come on, the front blinkers blink faster and the rear ones don't work either. could it be one of the rear blinker bulbs is bad?

[jdubub]

it could be. thats the first thing i would do is buy bulbs and replace them all because they arent expensive.

As far as anything else someone with more knowledge will chime in.

[MikeNH]

I have a 1999 chevrolet k1500 5.3 4x4. The tail lights no longer come on except when I brake, what could be causing this? I checked the fuses and there okay,bulbs all work cause the tail lights come on, the front blinkers blink faster and the rear ones don't work either. could it be one of the rear blinker bulbs is bad?

 

 

The brake light is a dual-filament bulb so it is very possible the parking lamp side could be burnt out. As for the turn signals, do your hazards work?

[casper98]

I have a 1999 chevrolet k1500 5.3 4x4. The tail lights no longer come on except when I brake, what could be causing this? I checked the fuses and there okay,bulbs all work cause the tail lights come on, the front blinkers blink faster and the rear ones don't work either. could it be one of the rear blinker bulbs is bad?

 

 

The brake light is a dual-filament bulb so it is very possible the parking lamp side could be burnt out. As for the turn signals, do your hazards work?

 

Front hazards work but not the rear.

[c4cruiser]

I have a 1999 chevrolet k1500 5.3 4x4. The tail lights no longer come on except when I brake, what could be causing this? I checked the fuses and there okay,bulbs all work cause the tail lights come on, the front blinkers blink faster and the rear ones don't work either. could it be one of the rear blinker bulbs is bad?

 

 

I would check for a bad ground wire. Bad grounds were the cause of early 60's passenger cars tail and brake lights acting this way.

 

As far as the turn signals, it could be the same ground issue. All of the bulb sockets have their own ground wires and the ground wires on each side typically meet at a grounding screw which would be on the frame rail. Maybe somebody with a wiring diagram for the rear harness can point out the location of the ground screws for the rear lamps.

[MikeNH]

I have a 1999 chevrolet k1500 5.3 4x4. The tail lights no longer come on except when I brake, what could be causing this? I checked the fuses and there okay,bulbs all work cause the tail lights come on, the front blinkers blink faster and the rear ones don't work either. could it be one of the rear blinker bulbs is bad?

 

 

The brake light is a dual-filament bulb so it is very possible the parking lamp side could be burnt out. As for the turn signals, do your hazards work?

 

Front hazards work but not the rear.

 

You probably have bad bulbs, hazards use the same bulbs as turn signals. Go spend $10 at autozone on bulbs, or at least pull them and inspect them. It's a 5 minute job.

[Rons05z71]

I just had a similar problem on my 05. Some mice got in under the fuse box in the engine compartment and chewed through 4 wires while making a nest. Had to splice in new wire and cleaned the fuse panel on top with electronic cleaner to get all the urine out.

 

I have a 1999 chevrolet k1500 5.3 4x4. The tail lights no longer come on except when I brake, what could be causing this? I checked the fuses and there okay,bulbs all work cause the tail lights come on, the front blinkers blink faster and the rear ones don't work either. could it be one of the rear blinker bulbs is bad?

 

 

The brake light is a dual-filament bulb so it is very possible the parking lamp side could be burnt out. As for the turn signals, do your hazards work?

 

Front hazards work but not the rear.

 

You probably have bad bulbs, hazards use the same bulbs as turn signals. Go spend $10 at autozone on bulbs, or at least pull them and inspect them. It's a 5 minute job.

 

[Metro12]

Not 100% sure on the silverados, but nearly ever car has the dash/instrument cluster lights on the same line. If you have no dash lights either, its gonna be a fault closer to the engine compartment.