Reverse lights dead
 

I had this problem for over a year now and I don't know why I didn't do anything about it yet. Anyways my back up lights don't come on when I put my car into reverse. The bulbs are still fine, in fact I changed them and tried again but still no light. Sometimes after driving my car for a while and I reverse, the lights will actually come on but I kinda have to push up on my selector lever while it's in "R." It's an automatic by the way. Then it comes on, but when I stop pushing it, it goes off for a while and then lights up again but this time stays on. I am not sure if it's a mechanical failure, I'm leaning more towards an electrical failure but I don't know where to start looking. About two years ago I had the problem with my brake light failure warning light on the dash staying on and when that came on my taillights wouldn't light. So I did the mod where you cut a purple wire on the brake light failure relay behind the driver side taillight and the problem was fixed. But then that's when my taillights started to not work anymore. Anyone experience the same problem? Maybe I need that purple wire for my taillights? I have no idea.

I'm not sure of your problem nor do I have the answer...but I had a similar problem. My brake lights weren't working, and I couldn't get the car out of gear unless I held down the shift lock override button. Turned out my problem was the sensor and the switch. However, a month later the same thing happened. No lights, couldn't get it out of gear. The mechanic at Midas took 2 weeks working on it in his spare time (since I made a big stink and got them to fix it for free on their time) and he never found the wire or malfunction causing the problem. He had to cut the shift lock sensor out and run a new relay from the battery to the fuse box. Tail lights and everything work, but my brake light warning light stays on. The mechanic showed me that very same purple wire to cut to get rid of the warning light, but he said he was unsure if it would cause problems...so I took the safe route and didn't cut it. Try splicing the wires back together and put a cap on it...might be worth a shot.

if you get annoyed with that light being on all the time, just take your gauge cluster out and remove the light. be careful not to break your speedo cable in the process

Yeah I'll try reconnecting that purple wire and see if they shine. The weird thing was that when that taillight warning light would come on the lights would work still, but most the time it didn't...but you know it only came on after I moved the shifter to "D" where in that case I go pass the "R" sensor...maybe it was telling me somethings up with my reverse sensor for the reverse lights. I'll do some experimenting soon. Thanks for the info and suggestions.

FYI...turns out the neutral switch has gone bad on my car. Automatic transmission reverse sensor built into the neutral switch. Should have known the neutral switch was going bad completely when two years ago I noticed starting my car required me to jiggle or hold against my selector lever to let to car know it was in Park and OK to start.