So basically water got into my mother’s taillight from a bad seal, and corroded one of the bulb holders.
It had no power anymore whatsoever.
So I cleaned it with a wire brush, soap & warm water, bicarbonate & white vinegar, then I dried it with a hairdryer and sprayed it with electrical cleaner.
Then I plugged it back in and everything was working again.

I decided to check the other taillight and I noticed that it was full of white rust much like the first one was.

So I decided to clean this one up with the same method.

I plug it back in and now the indicator & fog light will not work.

Can I do anything to fix this? Or have I obviously shorted it or something? 
I don’t know that’s behind the black bit in the centre but does it contain something that I may have shorted out? I admittedly didn’t dry the 2nd one for as long although it did look & feel dry

Hello David,

You will need to find the appropriate fuse and check whether it’s  intact or not. 
If it is, you will need to check you have 12v coming to the offending bulb holders. 
If you don’t, I would be checking for fractured wires in the flexible harness section twixt the body and tailgate - a favourite place for wires to fracture due to opening and closing. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

12 hours ago, Magnet said:

Hello David,

You will need to find the appropriate fuse and check whether it’s  intact or not. 
If it is, you will need to check you have 12v coming to the offending bulb holders. 
If you don’t, I would be checking for fractured wires in the flexible harness section twixt the body and tailgate - a favourite place for wires to fracture due to opening and closing. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

I checked through her owners manual and there wasn’t really a defined fuse for reverse lights or indicator lights? 
There was one for reverse switch? I had a good look at that one just in case and it didn’t seem blown.

I ended up just pulling out every fuse from both sides of the dash board and they all seemed fully intact.

 

Ive been at work all day so I will check the voltage & wiring tomorrow.

Kind of don’t think it’s the wiring though as it would be too coincidental surely? That the wiring suddenly broke when I had stripped the light down? 

‘Suddenly broke….’ wasn’t what I was inferring actually David. 
I think that experience of these in-flexible-harness issues is that the wires fracture, and sometimes the ends of these fractures actually touch and make contact - sometimes they don’t - and that process is dictated by opening and closing the boot/tailgate. 
Inspection here is simply an elimination or confirmation of the issue being associated with that point. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 
p.s. the fuse that feeds the reverse light switch is obviously the fuse that controls the illumination of the reverse light itself. 

On 10/5/2023 at 8:32 AM, Magnet said:

‘Suddenly broke….’ wasn’t what I was inferring actually David. 
I think that experience of these in-flexible-harness issues is that the wires fracture, and sometimes the ends of these fractures actually touch and make contact - sometimes they don’t - and that process is dictated by opening and closing the boot/tailgate. 
Inspection here is simply an elimination or confirmation of the issue being associated with that point. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 
p.s. the fuse that feeds the reverse light switch is obviously the fuse that controls the illumination of the reverse light itself. 

All fixed now mate. 
I replaced the pigtail connector on one side as one of the pins was burnt out.

The otherwise just needed longer to dry out.

 

Thanks for the help