Driver side light was out, and the lens was broken. I figured do the LED upgrade. Passenger side went in and lit up perfectly, driver side no light. Switched the two LEDs and passenger side lit up again. I got out the tester I got power to the gray wire, none to the brown, I assume the brown must be a ground, I guess it is no good. Can I splice in a wire and ground it to the nearest bolt. Both LEDs work on the passenger side.

 

Was the wire hot with the switch off? I'm not the electrical guru here, but a lot of our cars circuits are completed - switched on the ground side.

 

The brown wire IS ground, you should NEVER see any voltage on either one.
Here's the wiring :

 

do you think it's okay to ground that brown wire to one of the screws in the hatch?

 

When the light is lit up there is power in the ground otherwise it will not work.
You do not want to see power in the ground wire in your home wiring, common yes, ground nein.

The two bulbs share a common ground so my guess is the ground wire between the two housings is broken, add one at your leisure.

 

Thank you, I was just able to see the wiring diagram above for the first time, seeing that and you comment, your right, that's it. Thanks!

 

I stand by my original statement. If you place a voltmeter red wire on ANY ground wire in the car at ANY point ( with the voltmeter black wire connect to a known GOOD ground ), you should NEVER see any positive voltage !

ground = earth = 0 voltage

 

That is only because the electricity takes the easy route to ground and bypasses the resistance of the meter. It is the same reason you have to disconnect the battery cable and put a meter inline with the cable to get a reading of the drainage on a battery.

 

What about license plate lights that trigger the indicator on the dash, indicating a light is out? If I use one on the right side, it works fine. Put one on the left, and the indicator in the car comes on.

 

OK, I give up. Guess my 49 years in the field and in support for 2 large computer companies have been wasted. I obviously learned nothing.

 

I suggest you turn the bulb around, that style LED only works one way.

 

I forgot about that!

 

All I'm saying is if you put a meter or bulb in line on the ground wire winch is attached to the ground wire that works the meter/bulb will react accordingly.

 

I hate it when that happens.. are you still getting a retirement benefit?

 

So come on, tell us what the problem was! You really shouldn't have to be rewiring the car.

 

Okay up till now my biggest thing have been working on his air-conditioning but I did fix the license plate light, I just ran a jumper from one brown wire on the one light that worked to the other light that didn't work and then both lights worked. Best part is the light out indicator light went out in the dash.

 

Were you trying to say that you ran a jumper from the brown wire on the one that worked to the brown wire on the one that didn't?

 

Yes, that is what I did.

 

Hey Avantidude !
Went to a car show last Sunday and parked one car away from a Villa Rica 2001 Avanti, serial number 2.
Really nice car !

 

Let the expert chime in... "saaaay what"....!!Carl