My taillights and one brake light recently stopped working in my '97 Elantra wagon, and after popping open the driver side rear service panels, there is a 4 conductor connector plugged into a relay which was very corroded. When I tried to remove the connector, three of the wires came out, and I have no idea which ports the wires go into. Can anyone help with this information?

I'll try and post a photo.. hopefully it worked.
The wires that go into the connector are (with main color listed first):
the two thickest wires: red/black, blue/red
the two thinnest wires: blue/red, white/red

 

edit:

I've had a little time to investigate this further. The two thicker wires have 12vdc going to them at all times, and are on the RR HTD (whatever that means) 30A fuse under the dash. The other two wires have continuity to the right and left tail light ground. I have wired everything up and still no tail lights. The tail lights get about 10vdc with the headlight switch on, whereas the brake lights get a full 12.5vdc.

The relay, if thats what the thing in the photo is, does not make any noise when I apply 12vdc to it.. at this point I am guessing I need a new one.. the connector looks like it got hot around the point where the 12vdc+ wire plugs in, so maybe it fried the relay?

If all else fails, can I just take 12vdc from the side lights (also located in this back access panel), or do the tail lights operate on some sort of ground switch? I'd rather fix this the correct way.

Thanks!

 

I'm not even sure if the item in the photo is a relay.. the tail lamp relay is in the engine compartment fuse box. Anyone know what that thing is so I can have a conversation with the parts department? Anyone?

 

It is most likely the headlamp relay. Power comes from the Green 40 amp fusable link to the 20 amp aftermarket tail lights fuse in the fuse box. If you have power on both sides of that fuse, then it's the relay or a break in the wire going to the relay.

The headlamp relay is located in the underhood electrical box. There are three relays on one side (engine side) of the box and it's the forward most relay.