Tail & brake light bulb keeps blowing

[pathyholic]

I have never seen this before but posting it for anyone else who ever has this problem. The right side tail/brake light bulb blows a day or two after replacing it. I thought it had to be a short somewhere but the left side never had a problem. Thinking maybe it was in the light socket I pulled the tail light assembly to check it out. When the assembly was in hand I kept hearing a rattle that sounded like something loose in the assembly. I couldn't find it on the exterior so proceeded to pull the tail/brake light socket out of the assembly and found that the lower cavity was half full of water. For some reason the water could get in but could not drain out. As the water would slosh around and hit the hot lit tail light it would blow the bulb. 

SOLUTION: I drained the water from the cavity through the light socket hole then drilled an 1/8 inch hole in the bottom of the tail light assembly that will allow water to drain if it gets there in the future. I don't like to drill holes where they don't belong but sometimes it is a good solution to an expensive or unsightly alternative. 

I hope this can help someone having this problem in the future. Good luck & happy wheeling.

BTW the 3.3 engine swap is successful and running great. 

[Slartibartfast]

I've heard of headlights popping bulbs like that. Makes sense that a tail light would do the same. I did a similar fix on a friend's Yota years ago, except we couldn't be arsed to remove the housing, so we just drilled a little hole through the lens to let the blinker fluid out. Hers didn't pop bulbs that I remember, but it sure looked funny following her at night watching the tail light slosh.

As for how the water gets in, I had a headlight start fogging up a while ago, and found that the seam between the glass and the housing was leaking. I dried it out, covered the seam with JB weld, and put it back together. It hasn't fogged since!
 

12 hours ago, pathyholic said:

BTW the 3.3 engine swap is successful and running great. 

 

Nice!