New to the site and again frustrated with this kitty.
With engine running,in park or with foot on brake in drive.....
if I turn the signal switch either direction,I get an erratic pattern of taillights flashing in conjunction with the third brake light.....also,yellow light on center of dash flashes when this happens.
Any ideas? Ever seen it before or possibly know what it is?
Thanks

 

bowhunter, I would start with pulling the plugs off of both tail lights and looking at the second wire from the edge and seeing if it looks burned (gotten too hot). If so, you have a ground wire issue and that is causing what you are seeing. After that, have you done recent wiring work on the car and/or removed a series of interior panels to work on something else?

What you describe sounds a lot like a ground issue.

 

Thermo,thanks for the info.
To answer those questions.....
No,the wires look brand new,bulbs all "look"good.
Have done no wiring on this car ever.
4 years and just maintenance and repairs.

2003 Jaguar x type 2.6

 

Any more ideas?

 

Thermo.....something new.
Cleaned the bulbs and sockets,reinstalled them.....
Seem to work fine now.
Only exception being yellow light in center of dash still flashes with signal.
I swear this car is possessed sometimes

 

"Full Moon itis"

Thermo is still correct about the bad ground. You "fixed" the problem somewhat, but now you're still maintaining what is known as a "floating ground".

Remove, clean, scrape and tighten any ground screws or bolts you run across near the tail lights or wiring harness. Giggle wires around, one set at a time, for an indication of the are you might need to concentrate on. Sometimes just giggling them will temporarily fix an issue.

Spray WD-40 into any connector you disconnect, and every ground screw or bolt you clean and redo.

 

bowhunter, I would first start with unplugging both taillights and seeing if the problem continues with the light on the dash. IF it does, then the problem is internal to the wiring harness of the car.

Next, plug in 1 tail light and see if the problem occurs again. If it doesn't, unplug that tail light and plug in the other and see if the problem occurs.

If the problem only occurs with 1 tail light, then remove the bulb plate from the back of the tail light (keep the bulb plate plugged in) and remove all the bulbs. Does the problem occur now? If yes, odds are, your problem lies in the bulb plate. If not, install the bulbs one at a time seeing if the problem occurs again. Let me know which bulb causes the problem to occur.

We can then take things from there and get more specific troubleshooting actions to do then.