Tail Light indicator on, none burnt out?

[MortySnerd]

My center tail light had burnt out, the indicator came on and told me as much, I replaced it, and the indicator went away.

Then a few days later, the indicator would come on for a while, then go away, them come back on....

I had a friend drive behind me, at no point did any of my other tail lights go out. All are on and working.

I find if I'm at a red light and holding the brake for a while, the tail light indicator will come on. After a few taps of the brake, it'll go back away.

Did I pick up the wrong voltage brake light possibly?

1999 LE 2.2 L 98k

-Mike

[Kep]

That might explain it but I wouldn't think it would be intermitant like that. You may also have a corosion problem. (The oxidation causes enough resistance to activate the sensor but not enough to cause the light to mal-function.) Just because you recently worked on the third tail light I'd check that one first. But then go through and inspect all the lights. It isn't just the tail lights. Pull each bulb out and make sure their base is clean and that their socket is clean. One of those cheap battery wire brushes works great for cleaning the larger sockets and bases.

Similar thing might happen if a wire was beginning to break on the inside. If enough of the strands were broken (but not all of them) it would increase the resistance (and actuate the sensor) but the bulb would still light up.

And look inside the sensor for burned areas on the circuit board.

Kep

[tremmert]

You could also check the wiring harness for the trunk/tail lights. It runs down the trunk lid hinge and often gets worn out while opening closing the trunk. Perhaps you might have jiggled it some extra while working on the center lamp?

[MortySnerd]

I found the answer to this as well and wanted to pass it on if anyone else is having this problem.

When I replaced that center bulb, I had reached the point where I had three different off-brand bulbs in all three of my brake lights. The Toyota dealer said sometimes this just confuses the onboard circuitry too much. Sounds like a nonsense answer, but they replaced all three brake bulbs with Toyota bulbs and I haven't had the indicator come on since.

[ghettosled]

toyota's trouble shooting was BS. the indicator light will come on before a light actually goes bad. a light that is about to fail changes its draw so it triggers the light. sometimes it will go on the day the bulb dies, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks. replacing all of the lights with new lights (off-brand or not) will make the light go away. or just wait for the faulty bulb to go out.

[Zviator]

Open up the light, take out the bulbs, use sand paper to clean up the socket, and put them back in ... Problem solved.

[new echo owner]

The light failure sensor 'looks' for a specific current draw or resistance through the circuit, if it detect a variation from what it is expecting, it turns on the warning light. Sometimes, it isn't as much as the brands of bulbs that you are installing, it is the consistency of their resistance. If the resistance of the bulbs varies too much so would their current draw. Off brand bulbs will probably work but you can't guarantee that they are drawing the right current.

N.E.O.