I know, there’s a ton of threads about the sequential turn signals. The thing is, mine work great. So do my brake lights. My problems is when I turn on the headlights, the tail lights just do this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp-OhDUuqKE
They were working fine a few days ago. I even passed state safety inspection. None of the bulb sockets are loose. What should I be checking???
Check to make sure the motor in the trunk is turning. It should be in the drop off behind the driver’s side wheel.
I had literally just finished shooting this video showing all the lights working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltSwmb8vDdc
I think it must be something wrong with the running light circuit.
Might be a headlight switch.
I hope not. I just put in a brand new switch about two weeks ago.
I’ll put it on the list of things to check.
So I started unplugging lights, and if I unplug the license plate lights, the tail lights come on for about 20 seconds. Then I hear a ping noise, and they go out. Then I’ll turn off the lights, and I’ll hear another ping noise. I traced the pinging to this breaker.
So how do I test to find what is causing the breaker to trip and reset?
I also don’t quite understand why the lights just get possessed and start flickering when the license plate lights are in the circuit versus having the breaker just trip without them in the circuit.
The taillights are dual filament bulbs, the low filament bulb is for the taillights (when the headlights are on) and the high filament is used for the sequentials as well as the brake lights. The low filament is powered from the headlight switch and has absolutely nothing to do with the sequential motor in the trunk.
If you note in the video, the lights that are turning on and flickering are the license plate lights (none of the 6 tailights ) which are powered from the headlight switch. They are powered via circuit 14 black and feed thru a 5 amp circuit breaker located on the drivers side back panel in the trunk. The circuit breaker then feeds the license plate lights and then through a resistive wire to the 6 taillights. Since your car only flashes the license plate lights, disconnect the feed thru the 5 amp circuit breaker and place a MM or a test light on the other end and verify that you are getting continuous power at this point. Next, examine your wiring nearest the license plate lights, I would look to see if the PO had inadvertently saw a black wire and wired it to ground.
Coach Jack
Thank you coachJack.
Without bulbs everything was reading correctly. Seems the driver side center 1157 bulb had some kind of internal short. Lights now work great without that bulb plugged in.
It only took a day of worrying and two hours of troubleshooting for such an easy fix … 
(At least I assume it’s fixed because the socket reading is good. I’ll have to go pick up a new bulb tomorrow to know for sure.)