One of my brake lights won’t come on. I replaced the bulb with a new one and it still won’t work. I tried putting the bulb in both ways, and it doesn’t light up either way. I even checked to make sure it was the right kind of bulb. Anybody know what’s wrong and how I can fix it? It’s a '99 Camry if that helps.
Did you check to see if any fuses were blown? That is the one thing that comes to mind right away.
Have you checked inside the trunk? Sometimes the connector gets uplugged, usually from putting stuff in and out. If you have a 12V tester, you can easly determine if the bulb socket is getting juice. You might also check for corrosion and/or distortion on the socket, if the bulb base isn’t grounding to the side of the socket it won’t work.
I just tried changing out the fuse, but that didn’t help.
All the wires and such in the trunk appear to be hooked up properly. The socket looks fine, I didn’t see any corrosion there. I don’t have a 12V tester, but my roommate might, I’ll have to ask him when he gets home. Any other possibilities?
It’s at least possible that the new bulb is bad. It happens from time to time. Test it out in the other brake light socket. If it works, you know the bulb is good, at least. In that case, it has to be an electrical connection problem; either the socket is bad, a wire is broken someplace, or a connector is loose, dirty or corroded.
Check the ground, as you stated one brake light works.
take a wire and while holding it against a unpainted metal surface touch the outside of the socket(if its metal) Ground problems are very common.