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Are attached to the circuit board inside the tail light assembly. You can't see them very well in the car, but you can remove the assembly fairly easily and lay it on a bench. Or squint through the access hole.
The socket holds the bulb, and it screws into the socket adapter that is attached to the circuit board. If the bulb simply fails, then the socket will still be fine and you just put in a new bulb. But if the contacts get loose, then you will have intermittent contact and high heat generated; the former will kill the bulb, the latter will kill the socket.
How does this happen? The contacts on the socket are springy and press onto the contacts in the socket adapter. The contacts on the socket adapter are supported by these tiny plastic triangles. I have seen these on a brand new (although otherwise damaged) tail light assembly. I have seen on a troublesome tail light assembly that the tiny plastic triangles supporting the contacts of the socket adapter are no longer there. So now you have a flexible contact on the socket mating with a flexible contact on the adapter. Poor contact under these circumstances is a given. The only thing you can do then, other than finding the rare tail light assembly, is bend out the contacts on the adapter so they make better contact with the socket.
Did I mention that all these contacts appear to me to be too small for the power they carry? It's just not a well designed part.
The turn signal uses LEDs and a bulb. Why both? I have no idea. But if the bulb is burned out, you get fast blinking and an error warning. AFIK the tail light and brake light are all LED, while the turn signal is both LED and Halogen bulb, and the reverse light is halogen bulb.
posted by 98.28.16...
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