Rear taillights

[ksczesny]

Been having a chime and lamp out indicator intermittently,found if I checked the tail lamp the brake/taillight would be out. Changed the bulb and low and behold on/off the chime would return...Found some water in the housing and couldn't see how it was infiltrating?

Took the base apart and found the culprit!!

 

[Buffalo]

I, occasionally, have the same problem on my '03. What I've done is to remove the bulb and clean the wire shaped contacts with a pencil eraser. I ground the eraser into a "V" shape on two sides of the eraser. That way, you can get it into grooves in the socket where the bulb lives. The eraser is slightly abrasive and seems to take the offending corrosion off the metal contacts. Then, I put some dielectric grease on the contact points and that seems to solve the problem, for awhile. I live in the desert of Phoenix, AZ. so I don't get as much moisture as you do. I have no rust like you do. If you can get that metal cleaned-up, maybe spraying a silicone product would keep the moisture off. I don't know how long the silicone would stay on. There may be a better product to rust-proof that metal.
Joe F.

 

[Kry226]

Just replace those circuit boards that the bulbs mount into. I think they're only like $30-40. Common problem and when I replaced mine, the problem went away.

 

[sfritts]

I had the same issue, but no rust after trying to find problem for about 2 months of checking everything I bought 6 new bulbs for the tails and replaced all of them the problem went away. I checked all of the bulbs that I took out with a fluke meter and they all read good. So your problem could be a flaky bulb.