Well, Friday night I was on my way home from dinner, when I picked up a township policeman on my tail. I wasn't speeding or doing anything else idiotic, so when he turned his lights on after five miles I was confused. Pulled over, tail light is out! AAArrgh. Only a warning-whew. Sat. I start diagnosing, bulb is good, all connections are clean, put together, light works. turn off, light doesn't work again! Tap the ext. housing, light comes on. Take it all apart again--everything, clean and tighten everything. Plug it back together, light doesn't work. Lightly touch the tailight (board? the metal plate w/all the bulbs and wires connected to it) light comes on. What gives? It is only the tailight light which doesn't work(the small bulb in the lower outside corner)Flasher works, brake works, etc..Any ideas? It is not corrosion as EVERYTHING was cleaned. 86 951.

Eric(going crazy trying to find the source)

 

Change the bulb, I've seen a couple that even though the filiment was broken the two ends would touch enough to work intermitently. HTH

 

make sure you have good grounds

 

Dave already gave you the answer but I thought I'd chime in.

I had the exact same problem on my '86 951. One new bulb and problem solved. Even looking at the old bulb closely you couldn't see a problem with it but after replacement...no more problem.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Tonight I am going to pick up a new bulb and try that. That was the first thing I checked, but since it did work, and looked okay, I figured it was something else and moved on( I have had a slew of problems with the passenger tailight--leak[which I still have], extra blinkety blinker[fixed]). I have only driven the car once since then(to take it to the police station and show them that the light worked and get the warning expunged) and it worked that day, but a new bulb won't hurt . After spending most of Sunday washing it, the car has been hibernating in the garage in preparation for this Saturdays' PVGP Porsche display. (Now if I only had the space to jack the car up, pull the wheels, and clean the brake dust/road grime off the insides of the wheels and calipers....d*mn one-car garage!)

Eric(Gettin' ready for the weekend and it's only Wed. )