Brake light problem

[unckybob]

I am in the process of preparing my 1998 Toyota Corola (that's right, on the back of my car it's spelled "Corola" not "Corolla") to pull a small trailer. I hooked up the hitch I got from an outfit called "Curt":

curtmfg.com

After filling in the form for my vehicle the Curt website informs me that my 1998 Corolla has a 3 wire system that requires a converter. After a little research I find out that a "3 to 2 converter module" is basically and adapter. It adapts vehicles with separate turn and stop lights to standard trailer light wiring system.

I got one of these converters. I got as far as hooking it up to the tail light and left hand turn signal circuit. But I had problems when trying to hook it up to the brake light circuit. I found when I applied the brake that only the center brake light comes on. Specifically, the centrally located brake light that can be viewed through the rear windshield.

I can't believe that this is the only brake light that this vehicle is equipped with. There are only two lights in the rear left (tail light)-(brake light)-(turn-signal) housing. There are only two lights in the rear right (tail light)-(brake light)-(turn-signal) housing.

Is the Curt Manufacturing Company wrong? Are there seperate turn and stop lights or not? If there were, it seems to me that there would be three lights in each of the (tail light)-(brake light)-(turn signal) housings. Am I missing them?

Let's assume that it is a 2 wire system (turn and brake lights the same). Remember I had the left hand turn signal and the tail lights hooked up to the converter? Maybe when I depressed the brake pedal something shorted out because of the converter connection. I tried disconnecting the converter after that. When I tried pressing on the brakes again, once again, only the center brake light came on.


Can someone please tell me how to get the side brake lights to come on? And does anyone know if this model has separate turn and brake lights?

Please help me out. I'm out of town and I don't have my manual.

[unckybob]

The brake and turn signal bulb is one bulb, a dual-filament bulb. So this is a 3-wire system and I have wired it as such.

[CraigW]

Your brake, tail and signal circuits are 3 separate wires.

Brake & tail are in a single bulb and share a common ground.

You may have 2 bad bulbs (brake filaments open)

[unckybob]

Thanks for replying.

I replaced both bulbs.

Now when I hit the brakes the center brake light comes on and the left brake light comes on, but the right brake light does not come on. Well, at least I've got something