Tail light short out nightmare

[redgen1]

the lara has been the bane of my existence for the last 3 months - more problems then I'd like to recount, but the most obnoxious and potentially 'dangerous' one has been this:

so about two months back we had a stint of really heavy rain for 2 days and when I got in my car to drive home I discovered relatively quickly that my tails had gone out (i.e. some lady at a stop light literally said 'hey dude, do you know your tail lights are out?') Logically, I went to autozone, bought a fuse and tried to replace the shorted one - and sure as crap the lil f*Cker burnt out again immediately. fantastic. This was two days before coming back down to school. I hate dealing with electrical problems so I said screw it and just made the drive during the day. Came down here, brought my car into the local dealership and told them it was their problem and they needed to fix it. They concluded it was some issue with my driver side front harness - somehow this brought about the replacement of my brand new replacement OEM turn signal and some part of the harness up there - not a cheap procedure - but I figured hey, what the hell, I don't care, my tail lights work now I'll deal with it. Three weeks go by, we get another instance of tourential down pour here in Harrisonburg - I'm sober driving my friends from a formal event since I had the flu this past weekend and I get pulled over as I'm pulling into my apartment complex - but for what officer? Oh, son, your tail lights are out..... Guy lets me go, but now I'm back to square one. Im bringing the car back to the dealership and raising hell but I figured I'd poll the community to see if anyone had any bright ideas as to what might be causing this annoying f**king issue. Obviously it's rain related, but I don't have any obvious leaks and all of my wiring harnesses for the lights are in tact - nothing has really changed on the car in the past 6 months other than its propensity to blow fuses seemingly randomly... /end rant. any help?

-red


----0h and I tried replacing the fuse again today after the car had some time to 'dry out' - no dice.

[Ilovemylara]

well normally a fuse blows it because of a short, the taillight wiring has probably been shredded or pinched somewhere and its grounding out, causing your fuse(s) to keep blowing. Trace the ENTIRE tailight wiring assembly and see if there is any torn insulation anywhere on the wires.

[Chinky420]

^^ sounds like the most sound advice.



...and this would probably be the exact reason you (and I) hate doing electrical repairs.

[redgen1]

yeah i mean i gave it a once-over and didn't see anything, guess I'll take a look more closely tomorrow morning..

[redgen1]

--- note though, they worked fine for a week before it rained hard again..

[Ilovemylara]

Is there any corrosion in the bulb sockets? There's a rubber seal between the tail light and the car, perhaps it isn't sealing properly and water is getting in the connectors.