Wondering if this is an easy fix, or my electrical is f'd up...
When I turn on my head/parking lights, my brake lights stay on...the 3rd one on the roof and both rear sides...when my head/parking lights are off, my brakes lights work fine (I guess). When my door is open, and I hit the brakes, the "headlights are still on" warning buzzer sounds...

Soungs like you have ground short somewere. Have you done any wiring work lately,( trailor hitch etc. ) have you got any blown bulbs anywere. Just a start. Wiring is tough to iron out. Good luck.

found it, thanks...one of my tail lights was out i guess...

I've got the same problem now. When I turn on the lights, the right rear brake light stays on. None of the other bulbs are out, I re-soldered the connection in the wires going to the RR taillight.

I should also mention that 2 years ago my taillights on both sides went out and I had to remove the connector from the taillight to the wiring harness on each side because all the terminals were corroded. I hard wired all the conections by soldering them and the connections have remained clean. I cut the tape and shrink wrap to make sure.

Where does the taillight ground? In the manual it shows a ground near the taillight and then it looks light each license plate light has a ground. Are these grounds actual grounds to the body or is there a common ground point.

I believe I have a short somewhere that is causing the RR brake light to stay on. Any ideas on places to check for shorts along the wire loom?

I've been working on this problem for a couple of months and now my inspection is due so I need to figure this out. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.

The bulbs don't need to be blown to be the problem. I can't tell you the physics of it, but I've had it be the case. It's the cheapest place to start eliminating a new electrical problem like that too. (NYT you obviously know you've got NE salt problems). As far as I know the ground is one of the prongs in the socket, and just based on the mess of grounds I've found in the cab, I'd be willing to bet that it's actually one of those, but I haven't followed it myself to tell you for a fact. It would suck if it was one of the cab grounds, because the short could then be anywhere along the length of it.

According to the electrical manual I have for the 97, both left and right brake light grounds splice together in a bundle right behind the license plate if you have ABS, or mid driver's side wheel well w/o ABS. The tail light wiring, license plate light wiring, and turn signal wiring grounds splice into the same common ground wires. The wires are white with a black tracer. It looks like they enter the cab on the floor board somewhere in font of the driver's seat and then go into a plug. From there it goes to another splice near the kick panel fuse block where the wire for ground from the cab mounted stoplight come in. The whole thing grounds near the kick panel fuse block. For some reason, something is deciding it likes being grounded through your right rear brake light when the lights are on. You should not have any voltage at either green/white (the hot side) wire going to either stop light without the brakes on. I would get a voltmeter and see which side of the brake light is getting that voltage. Do both brake lights work? If you pull the right brake light does the left then illuminate with the lights on? Does the cab brake light work? Pretty bizarre.

Thanks for the suggestions. I may have some time to tear into it this weekend. Corrosion in the wiring definitely sucks. I have already had to replace several connectors due to corrosion and broken pins.

After market trailer light kits can go bad, I've had two of them die. One failure (on a Dodge) caused the dashlights to flash with the turn signal. On my T100, I had symptoms more like yours.

Good luck with your lights.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> What he said ! (pita)

Said once before on here, but I had an issue with my stereo amps powering down due to a grounding issue I tracked back to a failing tail light bulb. It hadn't actually failed, as one of the two filaments broke off one side & landed on the other filament... Couldn't tell there was a problem. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />