[TR] Continuing brake light bulb failure

[Randall]

> So wherever Toyota
> gets their  bulbs,must be pretty good, and perhaps a source that
> could help defeat the "Prince"  ... at least that is my experience

I'll agree, there seems to be a huge variation in lifetime of the combo
brake/tail bulbs on the market today.  I've had a "no name" bulb from a
discount store fail within minutes of installing it.  And my personal
experience has been that Philips bulbs seem to fail much sooner than GE.
(Side note: When I worked for Philips, the maintenance department insisted
that Philips bulbs lasted less than half as long as GE.)

But there is also a sizeable variation in rated lifetime of different bulbs.
I've recommended 2357 bulbs in the past, because they are roughly 25%
brighter than "standard" 1157 bulbs; but they also have a much shorter rated
lifetime (approximately 1/3 that of the 1157).

However, Craig's case sounds odd to me.  My first step would be to verify
that the "bad" bulbs are, in fact, burned out.  Using the DMM that IMO every
old car owner should carry with them.

Set the meter to "ohms X1".  The display should show full scale, or infinite
resistance.  Touch the leads together and verify that the reading goes to
(nearly) zero.  Now hold one lead to the brass bulb base, and touch each
contact in turn with the other lead.  You should see a low resistance
reading (a few ohms or less) for each contact.  If not, the associated
filament is burned out (or broken, etc.)

I'm also wondering what happens when the tail lights are not on.  If there
is a light visible without the brake pedal depressed, then there may be a
wiring problem with the car.

Randall