87 Taillight cluster socket repaired
 

When I was chasing down a non-op right parking taillight I found the 'tang' inside the socket had corroded to the point it would not work. When I touched it it fell off. I dissembled the socket by separating the top portion of the socket by pressing in the two nubs.

That gave me better access. I cleaned as best I could. I have read about replacements, but I wanted to see if I could rebuild it.

I snipped the green wire at the about 3" from the back of the socket.

I used a razor to segment the yellow plug that prevents water from getting into the socket and carefully pulled it away from the wire and socket. Set it aside to reuse it later.

I pushed the green wire through the socket leaving me with about 3/8" of the tang and 3" of the green wire.

I took a side panel parking light harness I had and pulled the copper strip.

The copper strip already had a hole in it. I threaded the green wire into the hole. I clamped the left over tang to the copper strip and soldered them together.

I then bent the copper strip to look like the tang of a nearby socket.

Then I used my bench grinder to trim down the sides until they looked like they would fit back into the slot in the socket.

I slid the green wire back through the socket and pressed the repaired tang in place and snapped the socket top in place. Made some adjustments to get the new tang low enough to let me seat the bulb.

Replaced the yellow plug. Added a touch of silicone.

Lastly I use a heat shrink butt connector to reattach it to the harness.

Light works - no taillight warning. And replacement is copper - much better than what it replaced.

Sorry no pictures. Use your imagination. :-)

-Kevin

rear socket
 

87s4. glad it works, mine was so corroded, i got a napa part, my problem is i am not sure where the green/yellow/black wire connects to on harness. i have no power as car is getting engine pulled.

anyone done this repair with replacement socket let me know.....thanks

Is that for a single or dual pole?

Light wiring
 

does this help?

The napa socket works greatl. i just used a test light and a helper to make sure I am hooking up the right wires.

Just bought a used S4 Harness on Ebay for $63. I think I did okay. If not, I'll go the NAPA route.

Kevin, You'll have to excuse my complete ignorance, but how the hell did you get the light fixtures out? My reverse lights dont work. Checked the switch, fuse, relay, all connectors in the spare compartment & both bulbs - all good. A multi-meter indicates it may have a feedback to ground somewhere - cant figure out how to remove the fixtures to investigate.

Any help would be appreciated!!

My car is a 87 - yours is a 86.5?

Correct... Are they THAT different... I HOPE not... :)

I had one tail light (two filament) with a corroded/broken leaf. It caused intermittent tail light and trouble light or stop lamp issues. It was too corroded for me to repair, though I tried. None of the other sockets in the rear assemblies had a corrosion problem, just one.

I used the NAPA Nissan Quest socket repair path and have been very happy with the results.

Mark
88 S4 Auto Silver Metallic/Black