I'm due for my inspection and have been neglecting this brake light mess. Went out just now and put a new bulb in and it popped instantly. What's weird is the parking light stays on. Its just the brake light that pops.
This is the same side I replaced the harness about 5 years ago.
Someone mentioned to me that harnesses can go bad every so often. Is this true? If so, I may order another one tonight.
the bulb is acting as a FUSE.
your running a lot of current threw it that is why it's popping "instantly" you have a wire problem elsewhere..
and the parking light being ON, your grounding something else .. that is not pulling much current to pop the fuse aka the filament..
so the light bulb is acting as a ground path with high current on the brake light circuit .
so you have
a shorted brake light circuit.( that is shorted as a ground path for a high current device)
maybe a mouse got to your wires ..