Dear BrickDad,

Hope you're well. These symptoms usually mean a poor ground connection for one or both of the rear light clusters. First thing to do is to clean the ground (black) wire's female terminal and that wire's male connector on the long metal strip, that runs top-to-bottom on each light cluster.

Do not rely on inspection: a layer of corrosion a few molecules thick - and so invisible to the unaided eye - can block the flow of electricity.

You can use an aerosol corrosion-remover (e.g., Deoxit), fine steel wool, very fine sand paper (say, 400 grit), etc. A few passes with steel wool or fine sand paper should suffice to remove any corrosion.

I'd put a thin coating of di-electric grease to the ground wire's terminal and to the ground tab on the cluster. When the ground wire's terminal is slid onto the ground tab, the metal will "cut" through the grease and make a good connection. The grease will keep air (and so moisture) from getting to the metal, and so causing the problem soon to recur.

If this does not cure the problem, then the next place to look is where the ground wire is attached to the body work. As getting to that place requires removal of the cargo space side panels closest to the light clusters, it may be easier to make a replacement ground wire, and attach it to the metal work closer to the cluster.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook