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03 Durango SXT, problem with brake lights and left turn signal

4K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  Reed 
#1 ·
Greetings. I am helping my brother repair the 2003 Dodge Durango he purchased yesterday. So far we have replaced the front left wheel bearing/hub assembly and the driver's side valve cover gasket. Now we are chasing electrical gremlins.

The truck is an 03 SXT model with all options, including the factory tow hitch and trailer wiring. We are having problems with the funcitoning of the taillamps.

The runnign lights work in both taillamp housing, the reverse lights work on both sides, and the turn signal wors on the right side. The third brake lamp in the hatch works, but neither of the main brake lamps light. Further, the left turn signal does not work in the rear, but the ront flashes quickly.

We already went through both rear taillamp housings and made sure the correct bulbs were installed and verified the contacts were good.

We have not checked what bulb is in the front left turn signal housing, but one of the two bulbs there was the wrong one.

I am not new to working on cars, but most of my experience on newer Chrysler products is with PT Cruisers or Neons. I have a factory service manual set on order but it has not arrved yet. There are enough electrical gadgets and plastic boxes that I know I ned a factory wiring diagram to sort this out, but my brother needs the truck on Monday.

I do not suspect the trailer wiring because it is a factory optional trailer hitch and wiring harness likely installed by a dealer.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any ideas of the oddness with the third brake light working but not the main lights? Brake switch?

Anybody have a body wiring diagram for an 03 Durango they are willing and able to share?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.
 
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#2 ·
Well, I thought I would post this in case someone later has the same problems and gets the same level of response my question did.

The problem with my brother's Durango turned out to be the actual plastic body of the tallamp housings. Someone had put the wrong bulb in (3157s instead of 3057s) and the bulb overheated with the connector tab in the taillamp body or the body itself and allowed the metal tab to be pushed into the plastic housing and no longer make contact with the bulb. Bending the tabs back fixed the brakes.

The turn signal turned out to be a combination of burnt out and wrong bulbs in the front driver's turn signal housing.

Moral of the story is always make sure the bulbs you use are the correct bulb and always check the integrity of the terminals.
 
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