I dropped my mother in law (sweet lady) off today from my daughter's soccer game. She asked me to pop the trunk. Like a dumba** I did. She slammed the trunk so hard. Hard as in I thought my grand dad was going to come up from his grave and slap her. (The only thing that ever made him made except the ***** was slamming car doors and trunks.)

When I start the car up, the warning lights come on I have a bulb out. Since it is light out, its hard to tell which one but the back brake lights (not 3rd brake) looks suspect. I replace it and all is well for a few hours. Then the warning light comes on again. This time its the third brake light. I replace it, but lose the trunk brake lights except when I brake.

Searching the forum yields a wiring harness problem near the trunk hinge which makes sense, except my LS is a 96. It's too dark out but I will start in the morning. Do you guys think this is the problem?

Finally, I figured I would go ahead while I was buying bulbs and get one for my passenger side corner. Is it really as easy as just taking out one screw and praying as you pull the corner assembly out? Thanks in advance.

 

check the wiring at the hinge, and the bulbs.

some 2nd gen cars have been noted to have loose/dead harnesses AT the bulb itself.

 

hi brad not that i know about 2nd gen trunk, wiring problems, maybe the bulbs were a little loose, then when she slammed it sort shorted, but if youve change it and no problems, that could be it, on the front side marker lights yes theres only that one screw, and you kind of wiggle or insert something flat to aid in pulling, out straight, just be careful the plastic tabs on those maybe brittle by now, just take your time,

 

I think I will use tomorrow to run this down and maybe change out my struts, which are pretty worn. I'll try and take some pics.

 

Well it was not the wiring. Unfortunately, I did not figure that out until I pulled every thing and tested the continuity of the wires leading to the brake light bulb in the trunk. It appears in my dylexic state last night I got the wrong bulb, using bulb 912 instead of 921 for the rear high mount stop light. Also had the wrong bulb in the brake light (s/b 7443) which apparently is a little different than 7440 which is the bulb used for the backup light. That Lexus computer is real finicky; make sure you get the right bulbs. Don't just go by what looks like might fit.

Lesson learn, pay attention when you fix the simple stuff first. If you get that right you don't spend hours ripping out your trunk.

The wiring around the hinge did look a little stressed, I left off one of the clips to give it a little breathing room. If I had to guess this is still a possible source of failure for second generations, we are probably just a couple of years away due to our cars being that much younger.

As for the trunk struts, I gave up. Neither Autozone or Advanced had the right part. I thought I could get the ones I got at Advanced to work but they were about an inch too long. It appears Autozone will soon have this as a part, but it is not currently available. Anyone got any ideas and a part number.

Finally the corner light came out like a champ, thanks again for everyone's help. I took pics, but learned it would be better to have a friend take them while I was doing the work. No matter, if I ever get the right struts it will be faster and I will try and post a tutorial, although it is pretty self-explanatory.

 

I had wondered about this before but didn't put much effort into it. As per this diagram:

(remove spaces between t o y o d i y)
t o y o d i y.com/parts/p_U_199502_LEXUS_LS400_UCF20L-AEPGKA_6105.html

The mfg part numbers are: 68960A and 68950B (64530-50011).


If you find a source, I'm interested.