I'm trying to pass state inspection and the final thing I need to take care of is the third brake light. I'm sure I could find someone to just pass the damn thing, but I'd like to fix it to avoid recurring problems. So where I am at is:

-A 12 Volt battery lights up the third brake light but the car will not.
-All other brake lights work fine.
-There is a 15-amp fuse under the hood which I am pretty sure is the fuse that covers this circuit - "high mount brake light" - and it has not blown.
-I cut the connectors right at the third brake light and tried to hard wire the light up and no good.

Now what? I'm trying to avoid hacking up the harness, pulling a bunch of panels out of the trunk, and making the problem worse so just wondering about the simplest, most likely solution to get this thing fixed - the most likely area for the break...is this common problem for high-mileage S2000's?

Thanks!

 

First thing I would do is change the 15 amp fuse.

So when you step on the brake pedal, all the other brake lights work? One thing I would try is swapping out the light bulbs. If you can do all, even better. I had a Ford Probe and the rear brake lights stopped working because one bulb was causing the problem. It worked fine when I turned on the lights. Seems like a worthwhile thing to try before hacking up the harness.

That's all I can think of now. I'll post back if I think of anything else.

 

Thanks for the information. I detected no voltage earlier today and undid the wiring harness. There were two wire breaks so hopefully rewiring tomorrow will fix it and also fix my trunk release from inside the car, which hasn't been working for months. I noticed that the driver's trunk hinge presses on the harness slightly when opening/closing the trunk. My S2000 has "some" use with more than 150,000 miles. I'm guessing overtime the repeated pressure from the trunk hinge caused the wiring break - the harness has some wear points to suggest such.

 

I have the same problem with my 2000 Honda S2000. My third brake light and my truck release switch dosen't work. can you let me know if you you fixed this problem and what the fix is. Thank you