Well it looks like the lighting fanatic on this group has run into a bit of a problem.
Let's start things off with me getting home tonight and wanting to get something out of the trunk of the car.



I go around and hello passenger side license plate light is not working.
I think it might just be the LEDs self contained housing unit died and proceed to swap the driver's side with it. NOPE. Driver's side unit wont light up in the passenger socket either. Well, damn.


I open and close the trunk to see if it's a loose wire or something, and the damn thing goes on/off at certain angles of the trunk being open. (****.)
So, now I'm the one needing to ask a question for once, so who has any clue as to what the hell if going on here. LOL

 

Guessing, no personal experience. Since the trunk wiring has to go into the body I would expect that the problem is at the hinge line where a wire has a kink. When you raise & lower the hatch the wire gets rotated & makes contact at various angles. Of course the wiring is inside of the rubber sleeve which makes it difficult to access. I have never had to get inside the sleeve. Good luck with this one. Please report the repair.

 

They are on separate wires from the ILCM, wondering why ?

 

I think it is so for the "light out system" to monitor each licence plate light individually. If they were hooked together, the monitor may not be trigered. Just a theory of mine!

 

Makes sense, but if it is a open wire, then the light out system would detect that the same as a burnt out bulb, unless that system isn't working either.

 

So here's some more information from my adventure tonight in taking the entire trunk trim apart.
So I took the trim off, and traces wires and such. Found nothing kinked or broken, and ground looked good and I even cleaned it and reset it as best as I could.

Now here's where it gets REALLY stupid in general. I took my tester with me, and tested both driver's side AND passenger side(the one that's not lighting up) for power.

BOTH have power, and yet the passenger side won't light up either LED unit except when I move the trunk up and down but only for a split second.

So, if it was a broken wire, there shouldn't be constant power to the passenger side, right?? But there is. What the crap is going on here lol.

EDIT: for added giggles, I tested the passenger side for power while moving the trunk up and down multiple times and it never lost power. What the crap....

 

Did you put the passenger one in the drivers side?

 

Yup, and it works just fine without issues. AKA, what the hell could be wrong at this point?

 

I'm sure you will figure it out and explain in great detail to us your findings
Your are afterall the lighting wizard here

 

Leaning towards it being a grounding issue more than likely. Going to just ground the harness itself directly and see if that helps.

 

+1 on that.

 

So, ran a ground directly to the harness plug by the LED unit and to a bolt on the trunk itself. Problem solved, and hopefully no more issues.

 

These cars even look interesting from that angle in your license plate picture.

 

I actually said the same thing, I thought it was a cool looking pic when I took it lol

 

Also, where did you get your avatar picture?

 

Found it on the web a long time ago, forgot what site though sadly

 

Adrian,
What are these 2 black hoses on each side and what are they connected to on each end inside the hatch ?

 

Don't forget to renew your plate in February
Let this be your reminder since the State of Illinois is flat a$$ broke and not sending out reminder notices anymore

 

Oh I won't forget LOL
That hose setup is actually the draining hoses for the water holes under the spoiler. Great little setup indeed

 

Where does the water go ??