hey guys,

Last night while on a drive my mate pointed out to me that my brake lights were not coming on when I was braking... I for a fact know they were working fine the day before. I left it home overnight and have checked everything I think could cause the problem this morning, so the fuse in the drivers footwell and the bulbs...

It's a really weird issue, I've never had any electrical problems with the car before... all tail lights/reverse lights work fine, it's just when I depress the brake pedal that the brake lights don't come on. Fuse was fine, bulbs were fine... so I'm really stumped, does anyone have any suggestions as to where I could look next? I really need my car today, and over the weekend, but there's no way I am driving it without brake lights lol.

Cheers,
Matt.

checked the fuse in the enegine bay????

Which fuse in the engine bay would relate to brake lights? I thought there was only one in the footwell for them? I looked in the engine bay fuse box and didn't really see anything that would be helpful...

BTW, I've tried disconnecting power for 30secs and then reconnecting - still nothing...

Could be the Brake Switch...

tried the swtch behind the brake pedal?

Could be the Brake Switch...

Hmmm... how would I go about checking this?

The switch might be dead :) Just remove the plug and use a multimeter set to ohm to see if it works. Should go down to around 0 ohm when the brake pedal is push down.

The switch might be dead :) Just remove the plug and use a multimeter set to ohm to see if it works. Should go down to around 0 ohm when the brake pedal is push down.

Cheers mate, will try it now!!

edit: multimeter is missing :doubt: Hmmm, I'll have a fiddle with the switch.

Here also another good trick grab a lamp and a socket and make a continuity checker. Just hook one side of the lamp to a know good source of voltage grab a wire and put one side of the switch and add another wire from the switch to the other side of the lamp :) should light up when the brake pedal is depressed. A torch can make a good cheap continuity checker or a led and a resistor and a 9 volt battery.

Thanks sparky! Found the mulltimeter!

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a126/BlazingMatt/29072011057.jpg?t=1311908200
Connected the two diagonal terminals and got about 1 ohm, so pretty tiny resistance... might head to the wreckers and see if I can pick one up cheap :)

edit: this shit's a lot harder with a broken arm lol

Sounds to me the switch is ok :) 1ohm is fine, so the switch is ok. If need be that switch has two switches inbuilt. Try the other set of contacts, and rewired the plug :) It will save you a trip wreckers and confirm the switch is the problem. There is a fuse under the bonnet that is a 60 amp that supply power to the fuse box in side the car that does, stop lights, radio and the air conditional. If that all that working that fuse is blown.

Ended up going to the wreckers and getting a spare for a massive $5 hahaha, replaced it and BAM, brake lights :D Thanks everyone for the help! And now I can drive safely lol.

Probably the Best $5 you will have spent on your Car.. :D

Probably the Best $5 you will have spent on your Car.. :D

Hahaha, quite possibly so far :P I can bet if I took it to an auto elec I probably wouldn't have had change from $100 lol.