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Volvo: 92 station wagon 740 turbo- brake lights, rust problems, fog lights


Question
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Followup To
Question -
I just got body work done on my car. They repaired the panel and now my brake lights are not working properly. First the left light was out ....I replaced the bulb and now both brake lights are not working. The brake light on the hatch is working however. And if I turn the fog lights on only one of those are working. It appears that something is going on in the circuitry... Before I take it in to get repaired I thought I'd like to know some possible reasons for the problem.I had a problem with pinched wire in the housing circuitry of the backup lights in 2001. Any connection to this.Could the body shop have done this too?
Answer -
You never made it clear which panel was repaired, so I'm not sure if you're trying to imply that you suspect the work might be the cause.  If you are, I'm going to agree, especially if the lights started malfunctioning after you got the car back.  If the mechanics had to rearrange wires behind the paneling, they could have crossed a live wire with a locally grounded one.  If you have one compromised ground wire like that, you can create random problems all across that circuit, like you describe.  I would carefully inspect the wires close to the panel that was replaced, as well as those which had a problem in 2001.  You might find either a corroded ground, or a crossed or exposed wire.  A bare wire end which touches the chasis metal can also ground out the circuit.  Good luck!
Thankyou.... The work that was done on the car was the left rear side of the car and also the hood was repainted as well as the roof.There was not major damage done to the car... I just wanted the dings removed and the area repainted to prevent rust problems.  This body shop apparently takes the parts off the car to repaint as opposed to putting paper around the area to be painted. Thus I assumed the left rear part that was removed to be painted was the area exposed to the wiring of the rear lights. But your answer indicates that the problem could be in the panel behind the dashboard. Tomorrow I am taking it to get reapired. The body shop is trying to say they did not do anything to cause this.  I did not have this problem before I took the car in to get repaired.

Answer
I agree that the body shop is responsible.  The fact that you mentioned they remove some or all of the exterior lights to do the painting indicates that is the most likely cause.  They might have hooked something back up the wrong way when they reinstalled the lights.  Good luck!