WTF!
I hit the brakes and the parking lights come on… Ofuk! All that rain the other day shorted something in the FJ80 and now I have some weird, undecipherable electrical problem! I get home and start messing with stuff. Pull the parking light fuse – still does it – OK, the circuit is getting power from somewhere in back. I open the rear access panels and check for moisture on the rear lamp cluster connectors, but those are OK. I disconnect the left cluster – problem persists. I disconnect the right cluster – problem goes away.
Weird.
I reconnect the left cluster to see if removing all of the brake lights from the circuit caused a false solution – problem is still gone. It’s the right cluster, alright. I pop the tail/reverse bulb and find that the brake filament has burned out. The leftover bits of the filament have fused the hot side of the brake circuit to the hot side of the tail filament. Hitting the brake energizes the parking light circuit behind the switch or fuse!
I replace the mystery China bulb with a slightly-less-mystery Sylvania Bulgaria one.
All is good.
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