Short story made long:
I recently had to loan my wife’s 99 Elantra to her sister for a trip to New Mexico and back (her civic wouldn’t have made it). In Clovis, New Mexico a local cop pulled her over for a taillight that was out. In an uncommon gesture of goodwill the officer simply asked her to go to the local auto parts store and buy a replacement bulb. She bought a bulb and had some guy at the store put it in. Now here is where we get to the problem.
Now the cruise won’t engage. The light on the dash button is on and pushed in but when I push the button on the stalk nothing happens. Second when I press the brake pedal all the lights in the gage cluster light up. This happens even with the car turned off and the headlights turned off. Third when driving with the headlights on the lights in the factory CD player look as though only half of them are on.
Now I have done no investigation on my own but can this be caused by a faulty ground through the new brake light bulb or maybe even a fuse issue? If you have ever encountered any of these symptoms before or have any ideas I will appreciate them.

 

If it's a 99, I'd take it in for warranty service.

The bulb they replace could be the wrong type, causing some kind of short or problem with the tail lights...but it should NOT cause the whole dash cluster to light up when you press on the brake. It sounds like something is just plain WRONG there!

Remove the new bulb and see if you still have all the problems.

 

the bulb came in a two-pack. I excanged them and every thing went back to normal. BTW the car has more than 60k on it so no more bumper to bumper. We drive alot. my other 99 has 55k on it. tongue.gif

 

Wrong type, I heard this one before, the bulb shorted the harness and it feeds back into the fuse box, but doesn't blow the fuse rather causes intermittent problems that look like gremlins on drugs.