97 Corolla, Brake light shorting out

Nic

New Member
#1
Two years ago my passenger side tail light assembly flooded. Initially I dried it all out, cleaned the sockets for the bulbs, drilled a hole in the bottom of the assembly, sealed the outside, and went about my business. I had to replace all the bulbs, but everything functioned properly...for awhile.

A few months later I got pulled over for my my passenger side brake light being out. I replaced the bulb, again no problem for a few months until again I got pulled over. Again it was the passenger side brake light. This time I replaced all the light bulb sockets as well as the the entire tail light assembly on the passenger side. I also inspected all fuses, no problem there.

And so again everything was fine, until a few months later I was pulled over for the same passenger side brake light being out. At this point, not being much of an expert on cars myself, I called a mechanic friend to take a look. Before tackling the pesky brake light my friend took care of a few routine fixes that needed to be done (new spark plugs, oil change, etc)

After doing these things and taking the car for a short test drive we discovered that the car would no longer shift out of park. Also now NEITHER brake light comes on. We replaced the brake light switch and again checked fuses as well as visually inspecting the wiring to check for any noticeable problems. No luck. So basically I'm stumped and as I said I'm not much of car guy to begin with.

The biggest mystery to me is why did both of the lights go out and the issue with the shift lock happen after the test drive from the oil change. Everything functioned properly the day before (other than the passenger side brake light of course).

Any thoughts/help would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks in advance.
 
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