Neon Tail questions....

[LSC CE 82]

What would cause this??? My neon light works fine with lights off, brake lamp on. But with parking lamps on it random goes from dim to bright and back to dim. Once i hit the headlamps, the neon turns off completely. No brake light. No neon at all until I turn the headlamp switch off. Also when the light is dim, there is a humming nose coming from the right side of the light.

Ballast? The neon tail is the coolest part of the car.

 

[93mkviii]

I don't know about the bright to dim problem but both of my neons that have went bad would sometimes come on with parking lamps and some times I would have to shut off auto headlamps and turn it back on manually to get the neon to come on. Most likely it's a ballast that is slowly dying. The humming noise from the neon light is normal and is from the ballast. These ballast do some funky stuff when they reach the end of their life. One of my bad ballast caused the brake lamp fuse to blow and therefore not allowing me to shift out of park.

 

[ONLYTONY]

+1 Ballast

 

[LSC CE 82]

So I think it's related to me washing the car. I remember it did the same thing a while ago. I took the inner trunk trim off and blew hot air around the light and ballast. There was frozen water in the light. Once it dried out, it's fine now. I see I'm missing the black cap that covers the right lower seam of the light. Looks like water could get in there.

Sadly today I found out I need a car I can drive all year. I put the Mark up for sale.