Stop lights and signal lights not bright

[Bill Ford]

My stop lights and signal light are not bright at all with my running lights on. I changed the 1158 22cp bulbs out with 1000 32cp bulbs. They are great during the day with no running lights on but at night you cannot see the signal lights at all. No problem with the front lights. My car is wired so that both tail lights and the center light come on together. Is that correct? Have any of you had this problem and how did you solve it?

[Oldguy48]

I'd take a good look at the grounds for the tail lights.On my P15, the ground connection is thru the spring clip that the bulb socket is attached to. Any sort of tarnish, corrosion, rust, paint, etc. can create resistance which will reduce the voltage applied to the bulb. I had a grounding issue with the driver's side tail light on mine, and that was the problem.

Wayne

[greg g]

If you look at the set up it isn't very good for light output, infact the position if the bulb is only about half way throught he body when installed, so a lot of the light leaks into the trunk. Some folks have claimed an improvement by painting the body under the bezel white or silver to have a bit more reflective surface especially if your car is a dark color. But do assure you have good grounds in place. I have also powered my brake light switch with a dedicated lead from the battery side of the solenoid. That takes alot of resistance out of the circuit.

[Niel Hoback]

I painted the insides of the tail and stop lights silver. Wrapping the outside of the socket and mount with tin foil reflects all of the light out of the trunk and into the lens. That seems to help as much as anything else.

[Guest P15-D24]

Also make sure the battery has a good ground to the body.

[Don Coatney]

Also make sure the battery has a good ground to the body.

Such as this

[busycoupe]

I copied Don and grounded my engine with a braided strap. I tried several auto parts stores and a generator rebuild company trying to find a strap. They either had no clue as to what it was I wanted, or else knew about braided straps but hadn't seen one for years. Finally, I found one on a website that specializes in parts for old VWs. Old air cooled VWs used braided straps to ground their engines. The strap works well.

Dave

[Dodgeb4ya]

Napa has several types of ground straps. I just Googled it and this came up. Thats where I always go for that type of item.

[46busboys]

yep, modern cars have many grounds. I grounded the body to the frame and the engine to the frame and body. With all new wiring ( correct size or better ) and new sockets ( extra grounding wire to body at each socket ) my lighting is nearly modern bright. I have no problems with them at all. P-15:):)

[Jerry Roberts]

If you have an Auto Zone store in your area , they carry the braided straps too .

[martybose]

yep, modern cars have many grounds. I grounded the body to the frame and the engine to the frame and body. With all new wiring ( correct size or better ) and new sockets ( extra grounding wire to body at each socket ) my lighting is nearly modern bright. I have no problems with them at all. P-15:):)

I totally agree. When I was rewiring the engine compartment on my 47 I had a custom length 00 gauge battery ground cable made from the battery to one of the starter bolts, with two additional 4 gauge jumpers going to the frame (one of the clutch pivot mounting bolts) and to the body on the firewall. No ground problems for me!

Marty

[Dodgeb4ya]

My stop lights and signal light are not bright at all with my running lights on. I changed the 1158 22cp bulbs out with 1000 32cp bulbs. They are great during the day with no running lights on but at night you cannot see the signal lights at all. No problem with the front lights. My car is wired so that both tail lights and the center light come on together. Is that correct? Have any of you had this problem and how did you solve it?

It sounds like you have the stop/turn and tail lights all electrically connected together. Thats why there is no brighter T/Sigs and brake lights that should be brighter when the running lights are on.

Bob

[B-Watson]

My stop lights and signal light are not bright at all with my running lights on. I changed the 1158 22cp bulbs out with 1000 32cp bulbs. They are great during the day with no running lights on but at night you cannot see the signal lights at all. No problem with the front lights. My car is wired so that both tail lights and the center light come on together. Is that correct? Have any of you had this problem and how did you solve it?

Originally, the taillights were just tailights and the centre light was the brake light.

Are you using a double filament bulb. The low beam of these bulbs was used for the parking and taillights while the high beam was used for the turn signals and brake lights. When you talk about going from a 22cp bulb to 32cp sounds like you are using single filament bulbs.

The dual filaments are what makes the turn and brake lights brighter. You will also need sockets that accept the double filament bulbs along with the dual wiring.