Why wont my tail lights come one?

Question

I drive a '99 Chevy. My tail lights do not come on when I turn my headlights on. So, basically, with nothing on in the back of my car, I cant drive at night. My brake lights work just fine. I noticed that my dash illumination is not working now as well so I assume somehow the two are related. Any ideas? Please help!! I need to get this fixed as sometimes I drive at night for work. I checked fuses and they all look good.

Answer 1

check the bulbs! those bulbs has a double filiment in them, maybe the filiment that works the tail lights are burned out.

Answer 2

the previous answers are good, but if you want to chase down the wiring problem yourself start at the taillights. you can use a simple auto test light, all the wiring goes from the battery through the fuse panel(s) and on to the rear of car, so start chasing out the wiring from the back to the front, because the wiring at the tailights is the last wiring in the car mabey 4-6 wires.

Answer 3

The first thing to check ar the fuses. You didnt say what kind of Chevy but most of them have the fuses under the hood for the tail lights but they could still be under the dash. The next thing to check would be the bulbs themselves, I have had customers who most likely had 1 tail light at time fail untill all 3 were dead then decided to fix the problem. After you have verified that neither of those fix the lights you need to start chasing the problem and I would advise you take it to a shop.

Answer 4

With no taillights and no dash illumination, you obviously have no power to or through the tailllight fuse.  The dash light fuse is powered by the voltage that comes from the taillight fuse.

Buy or borrow a 12v test light, and you should easily be able to figure out your problem, but, then you'll have to figure out the root cause of the problem, which is most likely a short to ground in the taillight circuit.  

If we knew exactly what model vehicle you had, could probably get more specific.....

Answer 5

i would replace the fuse even though it still looks good and see if that helps, also sometimes you have fuses under the hood that could have gone bad. if that still doesn't work you might have a wire problem and i would take it to a shop to get it looked at.