hello,

i have a 2001 xj with an out tail light on the right side. brake lights work. it doesn't seem to be getting any power to the bulb. i checked with a multimeter. seem to have continuity as well. its not the bulb, put a fresh one in, and I dont think its a fuse as i've checked all the fuses in passenger side fuse box with a test light. any on have a clue what i'm missing? any help greatly appreciated.

 

I have the same problem on my 91. It's the bulb socket for me...

 

How did u figure that out?

 

Be double sure the socket is grounded...is all I got. I've had trouble with that on both of my Jeeps, (and others) more than once.

 

How should I do that?

 

My 89' had the same thing on the front left blinker. Checked everything and it all looked good. I then noticed a small rust stain on the socket only to find that the ground strip going up through the inside of the socket had rusted in half so the bulb wasn't getting grounded. I had a couple spare sockets so I wired in a new one and problem solved. On yours check the ground wire going into the socket first then pull the bulb out and test the ground in the socket.

 

The socket was rusted. I pulled the glass part of the bulb out, twisted the metal base of the bulb, replaced said bulb and now have my right rear blinker again.

 

SUPPER! GLAD YOU GOT IT.

A neat trick to find any bad ground. Connect a long piece of wire, maybe an old vacuum cleaner cord, right to the battery negative. Vice-grips work. (or use your jumpers and a shorter piece if wire).

When if you touch that to say, a bulb socket it will tell you right away you have a grounding issue.

Once on a Toyota truck the front running lights would come on when I hit the brakes. The the whole bed was not grounding, so (those are different), so it's 1175 bulb waz grounding through the running light circuit. That one got me good for a bit....until I ran that long ground right to the battery.

 

On my 98 the quarter panel rusted out, thus the wires from the tailight were exposed to the water and salt and crap coming up into the quarter from the tire. My wires were rotting away. I just bypasses the connection and good to go. If it isn't the socket, pull off that trim behind that quarter and check that

 

Each tail light has separate fuse if power coming in and out ,use test light and test the socket itself ....http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/...tification.htm

 

thanks for all the responses. so to be clear, check to make sure the socket is grounded, and also that the socket isnt worn out. if its not grounded whats my next step? the right tail light fuse is #23 correct? but is not isolated? sorry I'm new to electrical trouble shooting but i have a multimeter and a test light. looking for more specific instruction if anyone has the time

 

I had the same problem all I did was hook it up to the other side

 

How did you go about doing that?

 

Figured it out. Bad connector. Thanks everyone