Outdoor electrical help...

[mcvickj]

My wife and I just recently purchased a new home. On the front of our three stall garage there are three lights. The middle one has not worked since we moved in this past December. I figured it was just a burnt out light bulb.

Fast forward to last weekend I finally had some time to buy some light bulbs and replace it. What I figured was going to be a 5 minute fix turned into over an hour of me troubleshooting. When I flip the switch the bulb will not light up.

So I grabbed my electrical tester and tested the back side of the fixture where I can see the wires and my tester lights up. I also unscrewed the light bulb and tested inside the socket and my tester lights up. With a small screw driver I gently pried up on the contact in the bottom thinking it wasn't making contact. Still nothing.

The other night the left light was flickering when I was leaving and when I returned it was out. So I replaced that bulb with a new one but that one isn't working either. Same deal. I have power but just no light. Thoughts?

 

[waffleironhead]

I would check to make sure wiring to the fixtures is correct. Mostly the neutral. You are going to have to open up the fixtures and check the connections.

 

[natto fire]

I am going to guess a lost neutral as well. Is the wiring exposed in the garage or covered up?
It probably is just a poor splice to the fixture wires. Most of the time the leads are stripped to short, or the home wiring stripped too long, and crap wire nuts that come with the fixture make for a connection that doesn't have a long life.

 

[pcgeek11]

I concur with the others. Most likely an open or loose neutral wire ( white wire ). Are they all on the same switch or are they individually switched?

 

[mcvickj]

Thanks for the suggestions. The garage is not insulated so I can see the wire running into the electrical box from the backside of the fixture. There is one light switch that controls all three lights. If I can get a break from this frigid Michigan weather I'll go out and take a look at the neutral on the two fixtures that are not working. Right now it is a high of 10F with a feels like -7F.

 

[stormkroe]

They're probably chained, with the light that's still working being the first? If so, sounds like a poor splice in the middle light with too-short strip like natto said, or even the fixture wire itself bunging up the splice. Sometimes the braided 18 gage that most fixtures have tries to 'hog' the wirenut threads, I always have apprentices pull on the spliced wired individually and they're embarrassed when the NM pulls right out but the stranded is tangled all the way up in the nut.
Also, fyi we were wiring in -26°C yesterday so hehe