My son received new smoked LED taillights for his 96 Ranger. Other than needing some trimming on the bulb socket holders they are pretty good. Only problem we have is the running lights are too bright and they don’t get brighter when the brakes are applied. It’s like the brake lights are being held all the time. The only time they get dimmer is when the turn signal is on and the flash dim to bright as they should. The brake circuit works fine on the truck and the third brake light works as it should. The lights came with a transistor to fix the hyper flashing as well and it works fine.

Anyway has anyone had this issue? I’m going to have to switch a couple of wires but I don’t know which ones and I want to make sure I know before I cut. The wiring harness from the new lights only install one way.

Thank you!

 

1996 Rangers use 1 dual filament bulb for Park and Brake, and a separate bulb for turn, and then another bulb for Reverse, on each side

The turn signal should have NO EFFECT on the park/brake light bulb, there is no connection between them in 1996

In 2000 that was changed to just 1 dual filament bulb for park, brake and turn, so no separate bulb for turn
Just giving a heads up that you are still using the correct tail light housings, 3 bulbs per side, not 2

The brown wire is the Park lights, one filament of the dual bulb
Brake lights are the light green wire, the other filament of the dual bulb

The new dual bulbs need to have the correct spacing and orientation of the contacts when installed


1996 Wiring diagram below

 

Yes, I am using the three bulb housing. There are three plugs and each one plugs into the socket of the truck where the bulb would turn in; one for the turn signals, the second for the brake like and parking, and the third for the backup lights. The middle plug is the one going to the brake/parking lights.

So what do you think I need to do? Switch the green and brown wires?

 

Do you think you got the wrong dual bulb?
Does the base of the new bulb look exactly like the old one?

When parking lights are OFF do brake lights work normally?
On both sides

If brake lights don't work with parking lights off and with parking light on its very bright then bulb is only making 1 connection in the base, to parking light wire, but its powering brake light filament which is brighter

 

No I don’t think so. The wiring harness plugs into the truck harness where the bulb would normally go. And those only plug in one way. You can reverse the backup light socket and turn signal socket but that’s easy enough to figure out. Brakes work great with lights off. The only problem with them is the parking lights are too bright. When you hit the brakes there isn’t enough of a change to see the brake lights come on. I need the parking/running lights to be on the dim setting so they get bright when the brakes are applied as normal.

 

So it reads like the dual bulb is reversed, the brighter filament is connected to park light

Yes if you want to cut and splice the wires you can, but do it at the harness in the frame rail, where you would connect a trailer harness, NOT behind each tail light
So you are doing BOTH tail lights at the same time
Brown wire from truck to Light Green wire to Bulbs
Light Green wire from truck to Brown wire to Bulbs

But the next poor bastard will have the reverse issue when he replaces the bulbs, lol

 

About where would I cut? And would I run brown to green and green to brown? Just criss them?

 

There should be a connector at the rear drivers side frame rail

Yes, just cut and switch those two wire colors

Are getting the correct bulbs out of the question?

 

Well there aren’t any “bulbs” involved. The taillights have an LED board in them. The have connectors that plug into the truck bulb harness in the place of the bulbs.

So just cut green and brown and splice green to brown and brown to green?

 

OK, didn't understand they were not removable bulbs, odd setup

Do you have a trailer plug in?

If you do, or will ever need one, then with this un-removable bulb setup I would do the reversal at each tail light, not on the main truck connector, or trailer lights would be reversed

Sorry for the confusion, just never used this type of setup

And yes reverse brown and light green in each tail light setup

Out of curiosity do you have a model number or link to this type of tail light setup?

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F264583580530

 

So according to that link the Yellow and Blue(brake) wires were reversed with the Red and Black(park) wire when they put the unit together

And you can't reverse the plug in the Ranger socket?

 

We tried it and it didn’t work. Must be a wiring problem within the taillight housings. We are going to try to send them back for a replacement and see what happens.

 

No it only goes together one way (the ranger socket).

We cut the wires on the truck on the driver side and wired green from truck to brown on back of ranger bulb socket and brown from truck to green on back of bulb socket. Plugged taillight in and it did the same thing. Running lights too bright not allowing brake lights to show as bright.

The units are made really well actually. The bulb sockets pop in the same way and everything. Fits the truck very well. We’ve emailed the seller to see if we can get a replacement. I really think they’ve reversed something inside the light.

 

Test truck wires for actual voltage in the brown and brake light wires

They should both show Battery Voltage, 12.3 to 12.8volts

The Ground is common to all 3 bulbs, so shouldn't effect brightness of 1 bulb/filament

 

The 3157 bulb has been the standard park/brake bulb for 40+ years, seen here:
You can see the two filaments are different sizes and lengths which sets brightness level of each

 

Yea I did. They tested fine. We put the old lenses and regular bulbs back and and they all work fine.

 

Good stuff

I guess you(we) will have to wait and see what "they" say, I am curious as well

 

Yes I’m interested as well. I hope they get replaced as they look great on his truck.

 

dgwestfall,

Does the backup lights work ok ?

Which of the two "brake/running" light stay bright or do both of them ?

Do both the Brake/Running light suppose to come on for braking and does either one of them suppose to be directionals ?

Reading what you and RonD have posted, it sounds like you have the wrong lighting system for the '96. Since you have separate directionals and the lights you are trying to install don't, there needs to be some adjustments.

Where are you hooking up the Directional connection to the LED Taillights ?

If only one of the two LED "Brake/Running" Lights cam on for Braking, is that enough light or do you need both of the "Brake/Running" Light Modules to come on to be safe ?

Again, I'm thinking you have the wrong Taillights for the '96 !

Ltr

 

Yes, thats what I thought at first but problem isn't turn signal/brake light, it brake light/parking light
There are no running lights, or there are but super bright running lights and no brake light with running lights on
Its an odd thing for sure

 

There are a few avenues to take but tryin to replace the Light Units sounds like the first step AND make sure the new lights for the wiring of the year vehicle you have.

If your next set does the same thing, you may need to think about doing some harness tear-down and rewire of the vehicle !

Good Luck, get a new set and start from scratch !

Ltr / Just to note, my responses are based on what I would do if I were in the same situation !

 

I bought aftermarket taillights for my truck and taking them out no problem but replacing the new ones a problem they don't fit there's a gap at the bottom and screw holes don't line up