Taillights do not work

Tiny
DLARSON99664
  • MEMBER
  • 2009 BUICK ENCLAVE
  • 6 CYL
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 124,000 MILES
Changed bulbs to LED, worked for a few weeks, then DRL quit working along with the taillights once the battery drained out.

Charged the battery, and taillights and DRL won't come on.
Monday, December 20th, 2021 AT 10:20 AM

1 Reply

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
More than likely there is an issue with the BCM, but we need to confirm this by checking the voltage coming out of the BCM for each of these circuits.

Basically, we need to find out if the BCM is commanding the relays on for the DRL and taillights.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-wiring

I would suggest picking the DRL circuit and just fixing that and if it fixes both then that is great. If not, then we can move onto figuring out what the cause is of the taillight issue.

However, the BCM controls both systems so that is the likely cause. Keep in mind that the LED bulbs may have caused the BCM to short out because the resistance in an LED is much different. Most bulbs take this into account but if the resistor that is built into them fails, it can damage the control module due to high current flow and little resistance. This is where a fuse would blow rather than the control module but due to no fuse being in line between the bulb and control module, the circuit board normally burns up first.

Please see the info below and let me know what questions you have on this.

Thanks
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Tuesday, December 21st, 2021 AT 11:32 AM

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