Check the brake light bulb sockets. The heat sometimes melts the little contact points where the bottom of the bulbs contact. There may be a tiny strand of melted solder that is causing a short or the bulb is sitting too low because the contacts are flattened.

Other than that you'd have to carefully inspect the wire for other breaks or problems.

Putting LEDs in would reduce the current significantly and might be enough to prevent the fuse from blowing, but it would be better to find the actual problem. If you have an intermittent full short, like when hitting a bump some exposed wire hits ground, then LEDs won't prevent the fuse from blowing in that case. LEDs are good at reducing heat and preventing the sockets from melting if that turns out to be the problem.

I assume you're using the correct size fuse.

And you don't happen to have a trailer hitch with electrical connector that could be a problem?

 

Welcome to Toyota Nation! DrZ threw up some good first steps, these cars do have issues with their taillight sockets melting. From there it's just examining wires for shorts, maybe checking the alarm wiring if there is any as it's often hooked up to the taillight low mode.

 

I had the same problem a year ago. Mine was caused by the tail light socket contacts. Over the years the insulator inside the stop lamp socket (passenger side) had burned from heat of the bulb. One of the contacts had drifted (scooted) over to the shell of the socket (a dead short) and blew the fuse. I went to my local O'Reilly's Auto Parts and bought a Dorman # 645-554 Pigtail Assembly (sockets, wiring harness, and connector assembly) which is specific to Toyota Corolla. That fixed the problem. I installed all new light bulbs while I had the tail light assembly off the car. As I recall, the cost was about $42 for the 645-554.

The Toyota OEM part number for the lamp sockets/harness/connector assembly is 81555-02030 which crosses to Dorman 645-554.

 

As I recall, the cost was about $42 for the 645-554.

Holy small fortune, Batman!!!

Sorry, but $42 sounds expensive for a bulb socket and wiring pigtail...

 

It comes with all 4 lamp sockets (with rubber gaskets already attached), loom cover, rubber chassis grommet, harness (already wired) , and connector. Plug n play, just install bulbs. A guy can probably find the Dorman part number much cheaper on ebay. The only reason I paid that much is because I had to fix it the same day and cops check our parking lot every day several times.

 

Ah OK, I got ya. Now that sounds more reasonable.

 

Thanks everyone for these suggestions so far, this is super helpful!!! I will look at the sockets tonight and see if they look like they need to get replaced. It looks like the part for my car has the part number 8155-02060 (I have the 1.8 engine model) and they say it's $74 if I buy it directly through Toyota :/ But from what it sounds like you guys are suggesting I could also just replace the socket itself instead of getting the entire harness?

 

Thanks everyone for these suggestions so far, this is super helpful!!! I will look at the sockets tonight and see if they look like they need to get replaced. It looks like the part for my car has the part number 81555-02060 (I have the 1.8 engine model) and they say it's $74 if I buy it directly through Toyota :/ But from what it sounds like you guys are suggesting I could also just replace the socket itself instead of getting the entire harness?

Ah.., looks like Fremont-built cars don't need extra amber turn-signal bulb. You can mail-order from online Toyota dealers easily enough, $36
https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem...lamp~81555-02060.html?Make=Toyota&Model=Corolla&Year=1997&Submodel=NAP&Filter=()

But yes, you don’t need entire harness, just brake-light socket as it’s typically only one that fails due to heat. You can trim one from junkyard car.

Or might get this one to fit if you trim off some of tabs around outside. [ame]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LGKE4XM/[/ame]

I've successfully replaced just core of socket: [ame]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N32HY48/[/ame]
These have figreglass/bakelite base and won't melt like factory plastic ones.

The HELP! DIY wiring section of most auto-parts places have variety of sockets and pigtails. Go in with some calipers and see what matches your car. I've found bulb-sockets for my Porsche in there and saved hundred$$$.

I suspect you may still have short in harness upstream somewhere. If it returns, we can look at narrowing down shorts to individual circuits to make finding easier.

 

This endeavor just got more confusing. I looked at the brake light sockets last night and turns out the shop that looked at the car a few months ago had replaced the sockets already which I didn’t remember and wasn’t part of their shop notes. But I found this little bit of white something in the socket (it looked like a little nest of sorts or some weird residue), which also wasn’t there when my friend looked at the car. I cleaned the socket, put it back together and tried to get the fuse to blow but it doesn’t currently. This absolutely makes no sense at all as this doesn’t explain the shorts I had previously....
Any thoughts on what this stuff could be?

 

Yeah so chances are something has melted... Like others have stated just check out all the wires and make sure everything is in order.

 

Looks like spiders have gotten into that socket.

 

That's not even the socket for the brake light. It only has 1 contact at the bottom and it's in the center. The brake light sockets have 2 contacts at the bottom to fit the 2-filament 1157 bulbs. A problem/short with the other sockets (reverse lights or turn signal) would blow a different fuse.