Taillight Questions

c5 rv · #1 (**permalink**) 07-07-09, 01:18 PM

I got a left taillight / brake light message yesterday and eventually resolved the problem by replacing the outside left rear bulb with a 2057. Some questions, though:

- I originally thought the problem was with the inner bulb. However, that is not a 2057. It has a single filament. The owner's manual and O'Reillys both said it should be a 2057. I replaced it with the same bulb that was installed. (1037 or something like that.) Is that not a brake / turn signal light?

- The Allante facts and other posts state that brass, not tin, based bulbs should be used. Why brass? Is this due to heat buildup? The stores only seem to stock bulbs with silver bases.

- The old bulb appeared fine and the blinkers worked on the outside of the car. However, the blinkers did not work or chime inside the car. Is this normal when the car detects a blinker problem? The new bulb fixed everything.

carnut · #2 (**permalink**) 07-08-09, 04:20 PM

The brass vs silver bases has to do with resistance values seen by the computer to display the fault message. The fault display relies on seeing a difference in resistance. Silver in one and a brass in another will display a fault but work just fine. The socket in question either has 2 contacts in the socket or one. A back up bulb would have 1 socket, all others, i believe should have 2. As you know, the difference between a 1057 and a 2057 is how many filiments are within the bulb and how many contacts are in the socket. Also dual filiments bulbs have offset pins on the base wheras single ones dont, so as to not error in replacement.

Moose123 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-09-09, 09:56 PM

I found the brass base bulbs at NAPA. Autozone only had the silver color and looked at me like I had two heads when i asked for brass. The chime does not function properly when the bulb is burnt out. I had a melted socket that i had to contend with and the chime didn't work on the defective side.