2015 Genesis Trunk Lid Brake Light Out but found a work around!

[Tim Sly]

Since the right trunk lid brake light was not working but all other lights worked, I plugged in the left assembly into the right socket to confirm that it was not the LED light itself and the brake light didn’t work on that assembly either. So it must be the wiring harness somewhere. I traced the wires back in the wheel well but they were perfect without any cuts from mice. Since it can cost hundreds or thousands to tear apart your car and check the wiring I found a work around. I removed the blue wire (brake light) from the plug on the left side so both sides look symmetrical. Now the inner brake lights are off on both sides of the trunk lid And look equal. You still have the larger brighter outer brake lights and the long bar of brake lights above the rear window. Now it doesn’t look like one light is out, it looks normal.

 

[Andyj]

probably broken wires in the trunk harness

 

[carguy75]

View attachment 36684View attachment 36685Since the right trunk lid brake light was not working but all other lights worked, I plugged in the left assembly into the right socket to confirm that it was not the LED light itself and the brake light didn’t work on that assembly either. So it must be the wiring harness somewhere. I traced the wires back in the wheel well but they were perfect without any cuts from mice. Since it can cost hundreds or thousands to tear apart your car and check the wiring I found a work around. I removed the blue wire (brake light) from the plug on the left side so both sides look symmetrical. Now the inner brake lights are off on both sides of the trunk lid And look equal. You still have the larger brighter outer brake lights and the long bar of brake lights above the rear window. Now it doesn’t look like one light is out, it looks normal.View attachment 36686View attachment 36685View attachment 36687

I would check the fuses for the rear tail lights; there maybe separate left and right fuses for the rear lamps.

 

[Tim Sly]

I would check the fuses for the rear tail lights; there maybe separate left and right fuses for the rear lamps.

It is only the right trunk mounted brake light that doesn’t work, the right body mounted brake light works.

 

[Tim Sly]

I have a better fix now! I spliced a wire from the blue brake wire on the left trunk mounted assembly over to the right assembly and it’s blue brake wire and now they all work great! I soldered them and wrapped with electrica tape. Woola!

 

[carguy75]

I have a better fix now! I spliced a wire from the blue brake wire on the left trunk mounted assembly over to the right assembly and it’s blue brake wire and now they all work great! I soldered them and wrapped with electrica tape. Woola! View attachment 36708View attachment 36709View attachment 36707

Thanks for the work around. My right inner tail light is also out, but the light works when I plugged it into the left taillight harness. The turn signal still works. Just the brake light is out.

Therefore, it is an wiring issue. I will try your solution.

 

[carguy75]

Today, I jumped the taillight wire and the taillight works, however the brake light is still out so I have to jump the same wire you jumped as well to get the brake light to work.

It appears that I have three broken wires on my inner taillight housing harness. The brake-light, running light, and possibly the reverse light. I will jump all three when I get a chance. Now I at-least have the inner taillight working instead of it being burned out completely.

 

[carguy75]

Here is the proper fix to our problem.

 

[carguy75]

Confirmed. I do have three broken wires and a frayed optical cable jacket with exposed wires under the black tape and foam covering.

So I will relocate the wire harness and repair the broken wires.

 

[carguy75]

Repaired the three broken wires and the inner taillight works perfectly;brake light and all. I just used non-insulted butt connectors and some shrink wrap tubing with glue to splice the wires back together. I also relocated the wire harness to prevent the problem from happening again. Cheap fix if you do it yourself. Looks like stock.

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[Andyj]

Excellent work. My harness is probably destined to suffer the same fate at some point. Good to know how to fix it without a major expense.

 

[carguy75]

Excellent work. My harness is probably destined to suffer the same fate at some point. Good to know how to fix it without a major expense.

Thank you.

The job is pretty easy if you can do your own electrical work. Butt connectors and shrink tubing cost less than $20 on Amazon. The other electrical tools can purchased cheaply as well.

My advice would be to buy extra trim panel clips because some will break when removing the trunk trim panels.

 

[gobookee]

Hi!
new to the forum and bought my 2015 Genesis 5.0 last september.
i started having this issue with the right inner trunk lights as well so took it to the dealer here in CA where i bought it from and addressed both the recent recall and the light issue. The dealer states that even the though there is a TSB, someone apparently "tampered" with the wiring. Their reason for the tamper is that "there's electric tape on the harness" and there are 4 wires that look like it's been "cut" on purpose.
i'm the 2nd owner of the vehicle and the only "mod" that was done to the car was the muffler delete.

They gave me a quote of $642 to get this fixed...
has anyone dealt with a dealer with this issue before?

Thanks in advance!

 

[joegr]

You can probably get a better price from a good independent that knows electrical.

 

[5.0KDM]

Hi!
new to the forum and bought my 2015 Genesis 5.0 last september.
i started having this issue with the right inner trunk lights as well so took it to the dealer here in CA where i bought it from and addressed both the recent recall and the light issue. The dealer states that even the though there is a TSB, someone apparently "tampered" with the wiring. Their reason for the tamper is that "there's electric tape on the harness" and there are 4 wires that look like it's been "cut" on purpose.
i'm the 2nd owner of the vehicle and the only "mod" that was done to the car was the muffler delete.

They gave me a quote of $642 to get this fixed...
has anyone dealt with a dealer with this issue before?

Thanks in advance!

I had the same problem with mine. If you take your time you can do this fix for next to nothing. It only took me a hr or so.

 

[carguy75]

Hi!
new to the forum and bought my 2015 Genesis 5.0 last september.
i started having this issue with the right inner trunk lights as well so took it to the dealer here in CA where i bought it from and addressed both the recent recall and the light issue. The dealer states that even the though there is a TSB, someone apparently "tampered" with the wiring. Their reason for the tamper is that "there's electric tape on the harness" and there are 4 wires that look like it's been "cut" on purpose.
i'm the 2nd owner of the vehicle and the only "mod" that was done to the car was the muffler delete.

They gave me a quote of $642 to get this fixed...
has anyone dealt with a dealer with this issue before?

Thanks in advance!

Odd. The harness has a tape covering from the factory. The wires are thin and they break in a fashion that looks like it has been cut. It does not make sense that the dealership would think someone intentionally cut the wires on purpose.

Sounds like they just want to charge you for the repair without offering a discount on the labor due to calling it a customer caused problem as opposed to a factory defect.

The only other reason I can think of is that someone did try to only repair the broken wires without relocating the harness; which allowed the wires to break again due to the same tension that cause the issue overall with the original harness location.

 

[doucmehu]

This post was a huge time saver!! 3 hours to fix the NINE frayed/broken wires including the camera. Practically free though. Everything works again.

 

[5.0KDM]

This post was a huge time saver!! 3 hours to fix the NINE frayed/broken wires including the camera. Practically free though. Everything works again.

Hey did you forget to remove and toss that bracket? It causes the harness to pull apart.

 

[doucmehu]

Hey did you forget to remove and toss that bracket? It causes the harness to pull apart.

Oh shoot, I didn’t see that explicitly called out. Are you referring to the little clip bracket circled?

 

[dfyffe]

Isnt this covered by warranty ?. I have a 100K WRAP extended warranty and I just had a noisy air condition fan, a broken lock on my glove box ,and depleted TPMS sensor battery, and all was covered under my extended warranty.