Ground issue, or something else?
I have a 04 Deville. Yesterday as I was about to leave for the morning, I had placed my
car into reverse without thinking, and backed into a plywood wall separating my garage
from the other one.. No damage to the car, no damage to the separating wall.. I noticed
as I returned home yesterday evening that my reverse lights were not working,upon
inspection I found out my license plate lights were not working but coming on instead
when the car was in reverse and the trunk was open.. Today as I headed out to go to
work I went to pop the trunk to place some things in there, and you could hear the
solenoid clicking but it wouldn't release, after several attempts it finally popped the
trunk.. ( Keep in mind that the trunk of the car never hit the plywood separating wall
and it was merely a small bump.. ) and now the inner bottoms of the tail lights have a
section that will not light up ( sort of like a 1x1 square cut out ) yet the rest of the tail
lamp will remain on as if I am depressing the brake pedal... The tail lights operate as
normal when I have no lights on, the reverse lamps as well as the license plate lamps
are completely screwed up no matter what I do, and the third brake light, well lets just
say, I have seen brighter colors out of a box of crayolas ( i.e Its not working either )..
Am I suffering from a wiring issue, i.e Broken Ground Connection? Could it be a
solenoid on the transmission that has gone bad? Maybe the trunk solenoid is going
bad? It wasn't a hard enough bump to hurt or even leave a mark on the car or the brace
on the wall I bumped, and it still does not explain why the license plate lights come on
in reverse and when I pop the trunk rather than my back up lamps and trunk lamp, and
why the brake lights are not working properly... If anyone has any Ideas, I would greatly
appreciate it as I am about to drive this thing off a cliff and say good bye to Cadillac for
good!