Hey guys. Just got my HHR back from the paint shop and the guy let me know that after installing the new tail lights, there was an issue. Everything seems to work except the running lights. Reverse is fine, blinkers are fine, brakes are fine but the running lights ( the bottom set) are not coming on. So this presents a problem for night time driving. Does anyone know the solution to this?

 

Tell the guy that did the installation to fix them?

 

The guy that did them is a long time friend. I'm reluctant to blame him when it does seem to be that there are some problems with these lights. I've already sent an email out to IPCW, so I'm waiting to see what they say. Just thought someone here might have some personal insight.

 

The people in China have no idea what your guy did. He would probably spot the mistake in a few minutes.

 

No offense Don, but you're not being very helpful

 

Check the wire that drops down from the top lights to the bottom, they must be connected in a correct polarity. Mine only come on with the running lights by headlight switch or after dark when in Auto mode.



Hopefully you can see this screen shot

 

Sorry, I can't see the wires from Virginia.
As Oldblue stated; they don't light up with DRL only when headlights are on at night.

 

Hey so here's the email I just sent to IPCW. This explains what I found out, but no solution as of yet.

So today I took a closer look at my tail lights to see if I could figure out what the problem was. I found out that my 10-amp fuse for the parking lamps had blown. This fuse controls both front and rear side marker lamps, the running signal/parking lamps within the headlights and as I soon found out, the lower set of taillights outer-rim LEDs. That's a total of 8 lamps. Anyway, I replaced it and the new fuse burnt out as well. So, I replaced it a third time and I watched the reflection of my lights in the car parked in front of me as I turned the key. I saw my marker lamps come on for a flash before going off again. Again, the fuse had blown. I checked everything I could to see if there was a short in any of the wires going to the aforementioned lamps and could find none. For whatever reason, it kept blowing. So I tried something else. I erroneously put in a 20amp fuse meaning to step up to a 15amp and now they all worked no problem. However, as I was checking the taillights out to make sure they were fully working, the lower left one started smoking and I immediately turned the key off. Turns out the harness that connects the top to bottom, (red and black wires) had started melting. Well, nothing else seemed to be going wrong with any of the right lights. I took out the erroneously placed 20amp fuse and found the 15amp fuse I had meant to use, and put it in. Everything works now....sort of. Everything is working properly on the right side (passenger). As for the left side, the only problem I'm actually having aside from the melted wire housing, is that the running LEDs are still not working. Blinker, brake and reverse LEDs all still light up.

 

Must be a short in the printed circuit board in the upper left light , did you confirm the wires are black to black as the directions state in the photo I posted?

 

Yes I did. The connectors actually don't even allow you to connect backwards. What do you mean by "a short in the printed circuit board"? Are you reffering to the circuit board inside the actual light? And why would it be the upper one when it melted on the lower portion?