2009 RX-8.
Been having water leaking into the driver side tail light. I couldn't do anything about it at the time. Now the tail light bulbs only, do not work. Break lights, turn signal, everything else works. Driver side only. My Question is... Am I able to replace the bulbs and just seal the leak to prevent any future problems, or do I need to buy a whole new tail light?

 

Are the bulbs even burnt out? How do I tell? I've seen responses on other posts about them not coming on because of wiring.

 

What are the taillight bulbs you are referring to? Side markers? Can you post a picture?

Running lights are the same as brake lights and they are LEDs.

 

This is with the lights on. (The little red leds) When I put the brakes on, Majority of those leds will come on. But why won't they when I just turn the lights on? The other side works totally fine.

 

The running lights yes, the LEDS

 

They come on when the brakes are on, but not alone like I need them to

 

So I just looked at the wiring diagram.



If you look at the black connector near the middle of the taillight unit, there should be 3 wires: a black one w/yellow stripes(brake lights), a pure black one(ground), and a black one w/ red stripes(running lights).

Disconnect the connector, turn on low beams, and put a multimeter on the 2 pins that connect to the black wire and red stripe wire and see if you read any voltage. That should help you find whether the taillight or the wiring is the issue.

As for the leak, my fix was having a body shop put a thick layer of silicone on the gasket and put it back on. Near had a leak ever since, and it's not like you normally would have a reason to take the taillights off.