jfbonhage

I got pulled over the other day and found out my barke lights were out. I've had the car about 6 months. Unsure of how long they've been out. I have a manual, and have searched posts on the topic, but I haven't found anything. Here is what I know so far.

1. Horn does not work
2. Brake light on dash always on (may be different issue, but worked with parking brake when I bought the car)
3. No dash backlighting (worked intermitantly when I bought the car)
4. Under hood fuse is good
5. No blown fuses in box by driver feet
6. Continuity good on brake switch relay
7. Bulbs good

TheRealTegger

You haven't got any brake light switch relay; the switch takes 100% of the current.

Pull the wires from the switch and touch them together. Do you get a spark? If NO, then no current is going to the switch.

jfbonhage

Sorry, the switch. I forgot to put that it has cruise control too, so there are 4 wires.

fcm

Brake warning light in cluster is also low brake fluid warning light, check brake fluid level and/or operation of level switch, [part of brake fluid reservoir lid].

As mentioned, test for power at the brake light switch, one of the leads should be hot at all times.

For the dash lights, the problem is most likely the DLBC, [dash lights brightness controller, to test, unplug the controller and test for power on the red/black lead, with park/head light switch on, if good, use a paperclip and jump the black lead to the red lead, if lights work, replace the DLBC switch. 94

jfbonhage

Cool. Thank you fcm! Yeah brake fluid is low. As far as power to the brake light switch, there is power. I checked them diagonally like the manual said to do for the switch test. I'm assuming one of the others would be hot when the cruise control is on.

jfbonhage

I'm stuck at this point. I must be missing something.

Tom_Chooch

iTrader: (1)

What do you mean you checked them diagonally? Is there an actual schematic in the manual you are using?

Also, just for clarification, do the taillights come on when you turn the headlight switch on? Or no brake lights when you depress the pedal? Or both?

jfbonhage

Yes, I was using the manual. It said for testing the switch (4 contacts) test for continuity diagonally with switch both on and off. One test for normal brake operation, and one for when using the cruise control.

Yes, the taillights are fine. Only the brake lights won't come on.

burnoutboy

iTrader: (22)

Stupid *** question, but I don't see it.... you replaced the bulbs right? I see bulbs good but did you try actually replacing them? Do you have OE tail lights or Ebay? Some of the eBay janks have loose bulb connections or shitty bulbs in em.

fcm

Have you tried jumping the brake light switch, from power lead to brake light lead? 94

TheRealTegger

You've not said whether or not the cruise works.

If your bulbs are in fact good, then shorting the wht/grn and grn/wht wires from the brake light switch ought to make a spark. Pull them off their terminals and touch them together by hand. The resulting spark will make the wires hot, which is uncomfortable to hold, so make the touch brief.

The brake lights are quite independent of anything else, so shorting together those two wires ought to give you a spark.

If you get NO spark, then you've either got a blown 20A fuse in the engine-compartment fuse box, or you've got your typical used-car hacked-up wiring.

Another thing: Pull ALL the bulbs and check their sockets for corrosion, especially around the ground wire at the socket. If there is any significant corrosion, that bulb will refuse to illuminate its brake filament.
I have seen it happen where only the taillight filament will light up when the brake pedal is pressed, even if the bulb is good. These incidents have always been traced to bad grounds. This means that, if the headlights are on, there will be no change in taillight appearance when the brake pedal is pressed, which tends to catch the attention of bored policemen.

jfbonhage

I get no spark when jumping/shorting the grn/wht and wht/grn wires to the brake switch.

On the cruise control, no it does not work. I believe it did when I first got the car.

I don't know if it has anything to do with the brake lights, but all of the wires behind the stereo and cigarette lighter were cut by a previous owner.

On the brake light bulbs, I did not replace, I checked for continuity. Money is tight, so I didn't replace the bulbs, but at this point, I need to rule it out.

I will hopefully have help today that should make testing things easier. I have been doing it myself, which makes it difficult to see the lights while pressing the pedal. As far as just shorting them on for testing in the trunk? Like I said money is tight and didn't want to run the risk of blowing fuses or causing other damage.

Thank you all for your patience with this amatuer.

jfbonhage

So, I connected a wire from the wht/grn wire from the under hood fuse directly to the wht/grn on the brake switch and the brake lights are fine. The issue is between those two points.

TheRealTegger

Then you've got hacked-up wiring, as I said before. (Why do folks do this?)

If you're not too concerned about the cruise, horn, or dash lighting, you could just run a new wire directly from the downstream side of the fuse straight to the connector block for the brake light switch. That would at least give you your brake lights until you found time to trace the break back through the harness.

jfbonhage

Probably is hacked up wiring. Anyway, I had already done what you suggested regarding running from the fuse to the switch and was able to drive today. Now, I can take the time to figure the rest out and do it right. It is a beat up POS, so anything rigged up at this point is fine as long as the important stuff works. Thanks for the help.