Hi Group,

I have a '10 Odyssey - no brake lights (neither of the rear lights nor does the center light in the rear window).
Fuse has been checked and is fine (horn/rear).
I replaced the brake switch first, seems to be fine. I also put a tester on the brake switch connection and it is performing as expected.
I inspected the rear left bulb, appears to be fine.
Any ideas as to what i should look at next?

this is puzzling. Is there a relay somewhere in the circuit that may have gone bad? Brake fluids also appear to be normal.

 

Unplug the white electrical connector at the brake switch. With a piece of wire or even a small paper clip, jump the terminal cavity with the Red wire to terminal cavity with White/Blk (white wire insulation with blk stripe) wire.

Does the brakes lights come on?

 

I disconnected the white connector. Jumped from red to white/black wire. Brake lights remained off (including when pumping the brakes). Next steps? Thanks for the assistance!

 

Check the voltage reading on the Red wire cavity terminal at the brake light pedal position switch harness connector.

 

The RED wire, and then the Black/Brown wire, are both reading about 14V.

 

The other wires are related to the cruise control circuit, not the brake lights.

1. Jump the terminal cavity with the Red wire to terminal cavity with White/Blk wire cavity.
2. Individually disconnect the connectors for the brake lights. Measure the voltage at each connector's Wht/Blk wire. -- Is power getting through?

 

The ignition does not need to be turned ON when you do these tests. Brake lights should always get power even without the ignition ON.

 

I tested both the left and right side brakes - and both ARE getting power. I have not tested the spoiler light yet.
Is it possible that both bulbs went bad? I dont see any obvious filament breaks in them,...but this seems to indicate i need to replace both bulbs.
But before i do that...would a bad spoiler light cause the left/right to not work either? This to be converging on a potential solution...appreciate the help!

 

Anything is possible, a short can cause issues. Disconnect the connector to the high mount brake light. Does the left and right brake lights turn on now? The bulbs for the left and right are dual filament bulbs, one filament for the tail light and another for the brake light.

 

On to something here....
Having left the red to white/black pig-tail connector on...
I took the spoiler light off....then i wiggled it...then that light came on! It appears as though the solder connection appears broken, which is why wiggling it a bit caused contact to be made. I reinstalled the brake switch back to normal, applied braking and the spoiler light worked as expected. I need to replace that piece since the soldering failure will obviously jiggle loose again.

However, the left/right still doesnt work yet. Does the grounding go thru the spoiler light? Thus, with a replacement of the spoiler light connection - will that get left/right working again? Seems logical that this is a weak point in the flow.

 

The right brake light and high mount brake light (spoiler) share the same ground point; but, via separate wires.

The left brake light does not share the same ground point.

Have you tried disconnecting the connector to the high mount brake light to see if the left and right work?

If they still don't work after that, you can try new bulbs. But, also first check for corrosion of the bulb connectors.

 

I think issue is resolved!
2 things:
1) replaces both left and right bulbs. (Probably should have done that first). Guess I was surprised they both failed together. While the still looked decent, there was some browning to the bulb

2) the spoiler light is still on the fritz. A wiggle of that bulb gets it to come on, but the assembly itself is shot. I’ll replace that pet eventually when it comes in.

Good of news is - the L/R now working fine
thanks for all your help, I learned some good things about trouble shooting and tracing the problem.

Only wasted $$ was the $8 brake switch that likely didn’t need replacing.

Thanks again for your help!!!!!

 

You're welcome. Good to hear you got brake lights again.