License Plate Lights

[Cincinnati Guy]

I couldnt ever find the license plate lights to fit my bumper so I went to autozone and picked up a set of the aftermarket one wire lights. the wires going to the existing lights was 2 wire setup. Im guessing the lights are self grounding. I put the lights in place and wire them to the wire and nothing o I try the other wire and nothing. Yes I have the headlights on. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[franklin2]

Take one of the old ground wires and touch it to the metal case of the new lights and see if they work. They may not have a good ground. Also make sure you have the correct factory truck wire. The hot wire for the light is darkbrown. The ground wire is black.

 

[icanfixall]

Any chance the fuse is blown. Do as posted above and then post back what you find. Sounds like a grounding issue or fuse to me... Test the factory lines for power at the lites too. That will tell you more info....

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

Figured it out, I swaped out the license plate harness and everything worked.

 

[icanfixall]

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Just in case anyone else runs into this issue, of the two factory wires going to the license plate lights the brown ones are the positive ones, the others (black in my case) are grounds. You can use either two-wire lights like I did, or the self-grounding through the bumpers. If you go with the 1-wire setup like Ryan did, add some ring terminals to your now-loose factory ground wires and bolt them to the bumper as well - you're helping out the factory harness this way, these trucks can never have too many grounds.

 

[Cincinnati Guy]

Just in case anyone else runs into this issue, of the two factory wires going to the license plate lights the brown ones are the positive ones, the others (black in my case) are grounds. You can use either two-wire lights like I did, or the self-grounding through the bumpers. If you go with the 1-wire setup like Ryan did, add some ring terminals to your now-loose factory ground wires and bolt them to the bumper as well - you're helping out the factory harness this way, these trucks can never have too many grounds.

I think I will go do this to mine.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I actually did it with the 4-way breakout harness for trailer lights - I already have a 7-way connector in the bumper, so I used the breakout harness for my extra pair of tail lights that live on the sides of the bumper, however said lights are self-grounding through the bumper so the ground wire of the breakout harness was not needed - put a ring terminal on it, and run it to one of the bolts for the license plate, figured it an extra ground won't hurt things at all.