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Tail light electrical connector corrosion

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Old Jun 28, 2012 | 07:16 AM
  #1  
alwzopn's Avatar
alwzopn
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Tail light electrical connector corrosion

Originally Posted by pew1375
I do however have trouble with my left and right tail-lights. Sometimes they don't come on. Like any British car a gentle tap to the light, and it come right on.
I need to take them out and clean them up!!
I would suggest getting them open now and catching the corrosion before it eats through the connectors.

I didn't even know I had this problem until this week when I tried to replace my lenses with amber-blinker euro versions. The left (driver's) side electrical bulb panel connection was pretty badly corroded - so much that I was barely able to disconnect it without about 10 min. of cursing and wiggling the connector back and forth to dislodge some of the rust.

This is what mine looked like on the soon-to-be-replaced bulb panel side. The wiring harness side plug contacts weren't so bad but I still cleaned them up.

I'll be opening up both sides, spraying them out with contact cleaner and then drowning them in dielectric grease before reassembly. Hopefully this will keep out the condensation that I suspect caused this (no signs of water collecting anywhere).

EDIT: When I get the new panel I'll post a photo to show what it's supposed to look like.
 
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Old Jun 29, 2012 | 09:31 AM
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Any issues after the repair?
 
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Old Jul 10, 2012 | 09:06 AM
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Originally Posted by PelicanParts.com
Any issues after the repair?
No issues after the replacement. I popped out the metal contacts in the harness-side connector and cleaned them all out with contact cleaner to make sure there wouldn't be any dust in them. I then took my dielectric grease and slathered up both sides of each connection on both RH and LH sides.

This, BTW is what the new, un-corroded pins looked like in the replacement panel. Comparing to the old one, I was surprised at how much thicker the corroded pins had become.
 
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