Tails and corners light up but do not 'flash' when activated.

[kronus]

Another DSM electrical issue....

About a week ago I noticed that my brake lights would intermittently work. As in, when looking in my rearview mirror when parallel parking, sometimes I could see the red reflection on cars, sometimes I couldn't. The tail lights light up when I turn my lights on, but they don't get brighter when I press my brake pedal.

On top of that, my side corners do not flash. Just like the tails, they light up when I turn on my lights, but they don't flash when I hit the turn signals. The main and rear turn signals work fine, but not the corners. As far as I know, they worked after installing the new headlights and corners, but that could be incorrect. (My main concern after this install was ensuring the proper aiming of the headlights and enjoying my new sexy housings )

I've checked all of the fuses, and relays and they work fine. Also, I haven't made any changes to my electrical system in months. The last change was replacing my stock headlights with my black euro housings. Prior to that, I installed my new H/U.

I really don't know where to look, but I'm thinking it may be a ground issue.

Reasons why:
1. Prior to all of this, any time I hit the brake pedal, I'd hear a slight 'thump' from my sub. Now I hear nothing.
2. Leading up to these failures, I've noticed my audio quality slowly diminishing. Never had this problem before, and it didn't happen when I switched out H/Us. (Went from an Alpine to an Alpine.) Also, it shouldn't be the speakers because they were installed at two different times and both sets showed the same symptoms at the same time. This distortion also affects my sub. So for the time being, I can't crank up the music.
3. I have no ground cable from the negative post on the battery to the firewall. That was a recent happening when my battery tie down failed and stressed the ground cable till it snapped.

Since I'm on this, what are the major grounding points that I should check for? I'm going to run through the entire car and see what grounds need a clean up and which grounds I'm completely missing. I'm sure there are more I need to find.

 

[kronus]

Anyone have any ideas? I really can drive my car legally like this. Not to mention no one can really tell when I'm braking. :scary:

 

[plymubishi]

Check your brake light switch for juice when you hit the pedal for the brake light issue. Should be mounted on or behind the brake pedal arm if I am correct. That and I would fix the known broken ground since you already know its there.

 

[97GSRyan]

Definitely check all your grounds, including the one for the amp powering the sub. I actually had that "thump" in my old Chrysler LeBaron whenever I turned the car off and came to find that the installers grounded the amp to paint. WTF Re-grounded and it went away.

And +1 to Plymubishi, brake light switch would be my first guess if all of the fuses and relays checked out. As far as your corner-lights not flashing, did you do any re-wiring when you installed the new housings? Possible you un-knowingly bypassed the relays. Let us know when/if you find anything, I'm curious what it turns out to be.

 

[kronus]

Definitely check all your grounds, including the one for the amp powering the sub. I actually had that "thump" in my old Chrysler LeBaron whenever I turned the car off and came to find that the installers grounded the amp to paint. WTF Re-grounded and it went away.

And +1 to Plymubishi, brake light switch would be my first guess if all of the fuses and relays checked out. As far as your corner-lights not flashing, did you do any re-wiring when you installed the new housings? Possible you un-knowingly bypassed the relays. Let us know when/if you find anything, I'm curious what it turns out to be.

I'll check the brake light switch tonight, and all of the fuses have been checked. I didn't think to run through the relays, so I'll be swapping those tonight too. However, I didn't rewire anything during the housing install.