taillights only work on rare occasiion

[6t8stang]

I went with these in red: Motorcycle LED Light Bulbs

I originally bought the 1157 style, but after having socket problems (which it sounds like you're having), I cut off the end and soldered directly to the harness. A little pricey, currently at $25 a pop, but MUCH brighter and never a socket problem again. It's really as easy as cutting, stripping, soldering and taping a few wires. I held them in place with heavy duty double-sided tape.

As already mentioned, they draw less power, generate little to no heat and are VERY bright. I think I had to make very minor modifications to the circuit board so the screws would clear - just a little carving with a utility knife.

I replaced my front and rear turn signals with these same LEDs. When I only replaced the rears, they worked fine. Once I also replaced the fronts, I had to install a resistor inline so they still blinked - added resistance was needed for the flasher module to still work since the LEDs were drawing much less power. If you're only replacing the brake lights, you won't need to worry about resistors.