Toyota Repair: tail lights not working, phillips screws, jumper wire

Question
Hi Ted,

My 93 Camry Wagon's tail lights and parkings lights do not work abruptly in the same time. Break lights, back-up lights, license plate lights and signal lights are all ok. In the beginning, Rear Light Failure Warning Light was on, but it became off from the second day.
I checked the fuse and the bulbs and wire. The fuse and bulbs are ok. When all of the bulbs were removed, the results of all of the sockets were 12v, but when any one of tail bulbs is installed, the other sockets would be 0v.


Thanks!
Kevin

Answer
It sounds like a ground problem, make sure you check all the white and black ground wires in the bulb holders, they have phillips screws that attach into the plastic housing and go to a common ground point, if these screws become loose you will lose the ground and the lights won't work,to verify this make a jumper wire directly to ground the lights should work.