Maxie40

My '95 SE was rear ended a while back but the damage was not severe. My trunk lid has had problems closing. Recently my aftermarket alarm (Viper) which has been on my car with no problems for 18 years starts to go off. However instead of the sirens, the factory alarm (car horn)goes off. The other night the left brake lights go out. I replace one bulb in the fender assembly and the brake light in the trunk assembly comes on. I recently noticed after that my dash lights come on when I brake. I know this is a lot of info but trying to see if I can diagnose the problem, pinched wire, short somewhere, or maybe the aftermarket alarm is causing issues. Any help would be appreciated.

DennisMik

iTrader: (2)

The problem with the lights sounds like an incorrect light bulb or a bad bulb. When you replaced the light bulb, are you certain that you put a 1157 bulb in? If you used a 1156 bulb by mistake, this makes a short between the brake light circuit and the tail light circuit.

Remove the bulb and look at the contacts on the bottom of the bulb. A 1157 bulb has 2, while a 1156 bulb has only 1. Even if you did use the correct 1157 bulb, try another one as the two filaments inside the lamp might be touching and creating the brake light to tail light short.

Maxie40

Thanks for the tip I did check the bulbs and they have two contacts. There is one bulb in one of the trunk lid brake lights that is pretty dim. I also noticed last night that when my lights were on my brake lights stayed on the whole time including my LED spoiler light. Trying to figure out what's going on.....

78Formula

Is it just your brake dash light or multiple dash lights that come on when you brake? I don't have any aftermarket alarm system on my '96, but I had a similar issue with all my dash lights coming on when I brake. For my car, it needed a new alternator. This might be a good place for you to start searching for the problem.

Maxie40

Sorry about taking long to get back. It was the wrong type bulb causing all the problem. I had a one contact bulb in a receptacle meant for two contacts. After I replaced the bulb with the right one everything worked correctly. I have not activated the after-market alarm yet but that will be the last test to see if everything is working correctly.