The light bulb all the way on the left of my driver’s tail lamp went out so I replaced it with a new bulb a couple months ago. Noticed it went out again the other day and after some trouble shooting got it to turn back on again. However, it would be as bright as when the brake pedal is pressed normally and would get dimmer when the pedal was actually pressed. It stopped working again a couple minutes later.

All other lights work properly (except for the front driver’s parking light which doesn’t turn on but the turn signal works, but I’m guessing that’s a separate issue). All fuses look fine as well. Any chance it’s just the brake light socket or is it something more? Car is an 87 base

 

Sounds like you have the bulb in the socket backwards. And/or, the socket is fornicated.

You can get new sockets hanging on a card at the parts store.

 

Turns out the light was in backwards that’s going up there on the dumbest mistakes list. Thanks for the help!