No problem wildwest........It's not a lost cause question. That orange wire you're speaking of is for the gear selector light in an automatic car with the column shifter. If you have a console shifter or 4-speed, you will not have that orange wire.
If you follow the schematic on that orange wire, you will see the splice for the radio light and back over to the circut panel inst. lights., in turn being activated by your headlight switch when the parking or headlights are activated.
As far as you brake lights/turn signals not working..Obviously check the fuse and your ground at the tail lights first. If that's good, make sure the turn signal flasher is good.
Make sure your brake switch at the top of your brake pedal arm is making good contact and cycling correctly when pumping the pedal
If those are good, with a hot wire tester, make sure you have power running out from the white wire (at the turn signal switch harness connection), when you hit the brake pedal. Leave the harness connected when you test that. Also check the dark green and brown wires coming out of the harness with the blinker activated with ignition or acces. on. You should get a blinking light or surge. It should surge or flash just like it was one of your blinkers going off..
If one of those green/brown or the white or both gives you nothing, and nothing else cured your issue, your turn signal switch is failing. It is a real common issue with these cars now a days. If you get to that point and pull your steering wheel, you will see a white and a red wire on the top of the cancelling cam on your turn signal switch. Those wires curve around kind of a corkscrew curve on the cam and break at that point. So, check the red and white wires and make sure they are secure where the little press rivet that holds them on top as well as check to see they are not torn or broke around that curve or just below where they turn in toward the inside of the turn signal switch. If one or both is broke...try to fix them. The quality of that switch is much better than the new stuff and you'll save yourself some cash. If you found a bad one or both and fixed them....Now try your brakes and turn signals.
If those wires are good and still nothing, time to start thinking about buying a new turn signal switch.
Hope it helps...Good luck!
