Re: If the bulb was replaced: too high a wattage? A loose connector arcing? (It, too, might've melted.)

Hey everyone,

After I finished changing out my winter wheels for my summer wheels, I decided to investigate a strange problem with my left tail light. Several months ago, I noticed a black/dark marking on the inside of my original (with amber) tail lights (MY2000). While looking inside the clear reverse light chamber of the light I saw this dark mark, about an inch long, and thought it was a dead bug or broken plastic etc, but it never seemed to move. So today I removed the light. It wasn't a bug or plastic... it was a hole! It appears that the tail light heat had melted a crack-like hole in the silver reflective surface of the reverse light chamber. I'm not sure when this started or even if it is still going on. It doesn't appear that the bulb makes contact with the plastic chamber/housing. Should I be so concerned as to replace the entire housing? It doesn't appear to impact the lights or its performance at all. Has anyone seen this before? I plan to check the other side to see if similar damage is developing.

In trying to figure out how this happened, I am 99% sure that happened/developed within the last year. Could it be from the brake light heat? Or just the tail light being "on after dark" heat? Very strange to me.

I'll be interested to hear what you guys think!

All the connections seem tight to me. This was my first time taking out the tail light. I laughed a little bit at the (unnecessarily) complex design. I've had my car for over 7 years now (it's 12 years old) and I haven't had a bulb go out in the tails yet. Compared to American manufactured cars this is a rocket-science design with that circuit board and separate housing. On my GM and Ford cars there's typically 2 standard screws and a harness to disconnect. I have seen melting on a Jeep we own, it occurred inside the light bulb socket for the brake light. It just seems weird that there would be melting on the 986 tail in the reverse compartment of the light. Seems really far from a bulb and also too far for arcing. Who knows, but still very strange to say the least. I wonder of it was sunlight being focused too perfectly on the silver inside the light. Sometimes the car sits for a few days outside... could be, but still not likely in my mind. Also, there is no visible smoking on the lens above the melted crack/hole.

Still wondering if anyone else has seen this before.

Thanks for the ideas though! I've considered getting some LED tail lights to update the look on the back, but I find most of the current aftermarket options too tacky/cheap looking.

-Dwass