I'm not really sure how long I've been driving around without brake lights, but I discovered tonight that they are not working. The rear brake lights along with the third spoiler brake light are all not working. So far I've checked the fuses which was good. So then I checked to make sure there was 12v to the stop light switch and there was. Next i checked to make sure the switch was operating correctly and make sure there was 12v from the switch. I highly doubt all the bulbs burnt out at once, but I guess I might as well check those out as well. And I swapped out tail-light bulb failure sensors so I know its not that either. Other than checking the bulbs is there an easy way to diagnose this or do I just have to follow the wiring and hope I find something.

I was attempting to adjust the pedal height to eliminate some of the void/freeplay in the pedal and thats when I noticed I didn't have any brake lights. So I never finished adjusting the brake pedal to the proper height and its probablly at the the wrong height and out of spec., but I noticed now when i press the brake the shift lock doesn't disengage and I can't shift out of park without manually disengaging/overiding it. Is this because I was messing around with the brake pedal height.

 

most likely... also you said you checked the brake switch at the pedal correct?

 

check your stop lamp relay its on the driver side rear 1/4 panel behind the cover its close to the gas tank... and its a black or a yellow box that usually that burns out and that leads to your brake lights being dead.

 

That relay you speak of isn't that the lamp failure sensor? The lamp failure sensor is also in the trunk on the driver's side. Just wanna make sure we are talking about the same part. If it is the same box, I swapped it out and it didn't fix the problem. The taillight failure sensor I have is 89373-24150.

Yes, the second thing I checked after the fuse was the stop switch at the brake pedal. I have a constant 12volts going in and 12 volts coming out when the spring loaded pin is released.

 

its probably the break light switch. how many volts was it pushing out?

 

how many volts was it pushing out? ----never mind. get one from autozone try it if it does not work, bring it back. i still think thats your problem (the break light switch)

 

same problem here.... checked all the same stuff with no solution. i also swapped the relay in the fuse box. does your shifter work without using the shift lock? let me know if you find the problem.... its driving me bananas.

 

anyone have a possible fix?

 

I tested the voltage coming off the brake switch and it was 12.78 volts. So then I traced the + brake switch wire located underneath the left side of the rear seat. Its comes out of the orange wire harness connecter. The + brake switch wire is green with a white stripe. Theres two green wires with white stripes. The one in the upper left corner is the + brake light wire. I tested the voltage there and it was 12.78. So then I moved into the trunk and tested the green/white wire that goes to the left rear taillight. The voltage was 12.78.

So now I either found out the hard way my brake light bulbs could just be bad. Or I suppose I could have a grounding issue still. Even if the bulbs are burnt out and are bad that still doesn't explain why the led spoiler lights do not light up. Unless the spoiler is wired up like christmas lights and does not light up if both tail lights are burnt out. So I wont know for sure until I can pick up some bulbs. Hopefully my spoiler led's are bad as well. So it looks like its the bulbs, but still not sure why the spoiler doesn't/wouldn't still light up.

But for anyone that doesn't have working brake lights and know its not the bulb, now you know what wire it is that you can check. I'll post an update when I get back to it tomorrow.

 

thanks for the update.

 

The shifter wouldn't shift out of park without over-riding it because I had the brake pedal switch disconnected. Once I plugged it back in I was able to shift normally out of park.


So it turns out I was tricked, my brake light bulbs were both burnt out and the spoiler led light didn't work b/c of a wiring issue. I found 2 broken wires so now I'm trying to locate the other end of those cut wires. So now I can fix my spoiler light and go back to adjusting the height of the brake pedal.

P.S Sylvania Silver Stars only last about a year from my experience.

 

thanks for the info will be looking into this on my day off