Strange acting tail, brake, turn signal lights on rear, cruise control

bandera · September 10, 2012

Have a 2000 Silverado Z-71, 5.3, auto trans. While driving tonight suddenly noticed that the two green turn signal arrows in the dash were both glowing a dim green. When I switched on one of the turn sig it would flash like it should, but the other would still glow dimmly & vise versa when other turn sig used. Noticed that my cruise control would not turn on (which had been working just before this all happened). Stopped to see what was going on. The rear lights were all glowing dimmly at the same time (left & right stop, tail, license plate lights, & orange turn signals) but the center mounted stop light on the cab stays on constantly. When I put a turn signal on, they all blink very dimmly on the proper side but at a much slower rate. The dome, under dash, & door panel lights stay on all the time. Since I was by myself, I could not tell what happens back there when the brake pedal is pushed down. The front lights seem to be working correctly. Having to disconnect battery to keep from running it down. Any suggestions PLEASE ?

Debo511 · September 10, 2012

Check g100, which is battery negative to frame. Make usre it is mounted to the frame and not the core support.

jaredlucky16 · September 10, 2012

Make sure the ground for the lights at the rear of the vehicle is clean and tight

bandera · September 11, 2012

Hey guys, I fixed it ! Dissassembled half the dash, checked fuses, relays , connections, and grounds where ever I could find them. Was still having problems with only the rear lights. Pulled all of the light bulbs to make sure connections were good. Got under it and traced wiring loom all the way back looking for any nicks, cuts, or anything suspicious. Couldn't find anything wrong. Then i got to the rear bumper. Behind the bumper there is a box with four plug connectors. The cable connector had a cable to each light, the one coming from the front and the other I don't know, unless it was to the license plate lights. Pulled them off and they were very dirty and sandy. But noticed on one of the harness plugs a female connector had a hot terminal and had melted some of the plastic around the prongs. Sraped off the plastic and cleaned it up. Actually cleaned all four connectors and sprayed with WD-40. After putting all back together everything works !!!!!!!!!!! Even the cruise works again. That makes me think there was a brake grounding problem. That's why it tripped the cruise off. But don't know why the heat up problem on the connector pin. Oh, yeah, the dome and interior lights would not go off because I guess while i was checking for problems I had bumped the adjustment knob that adjust the brightness of the panel lights. So it was on the brightest setting or the next one up that turns on the interior lights manually. DUH ! Not even related to the problem.