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2026-01-02: Some days you feel accomplished and *think* you've saved yourself a bundle of money. I think I've done that here. Hoping this info may save you some money too.
Background: I have a 2010 Chevy Malibu; Our local mechanic is pretty cool with issues and knows I can fix things. I took my car into him for its annual inspection and got a call later in the day that my 3rd brake light was working intermittently. He also told me the price tag - around $300 for the light and 2 hours labor at $125/hr. He also informed me that technically the light was now working (after he smacked it a couple times), but he needed my opinion on what I wanted done. After hearing the price and the wait time of 3 days, I decided I would take a look at the light. I'm glad I did...
This is the disassembled light looking at it from the bright end:
And this is the plug end:
At this magnification, nothing looks wrong. Lets zoom in a little and look closer:
Are you seeing the same soldering job I'm seeing? Yup. A couple minutes spent desoldering all the parts and then resoldering them is all that is needed. (Aside from putting the car back together that is.
After soldering, it looks a little better... not 100% sure on that one joint right under the 'R1' label though... ( I desoldered it / soldered it twice - apparently the lead is a little oxidized and my scraping it did next to nothing. ) Now I have a fully working light again... 50 cents of solder and about 2 hours of my time... (Now what can I spend all that saved money on? Oh look a car insurance bill just came. Nevermind...)