High level brake light trouble
Thread Starter
5th Gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
High level brake light trouble
The high level brake light on my 1988 convertible does not work. The regular brake lights are fine. The first thing I did was to remove the light thinking the bulbs were burnt out. They were not, and when connected to a seperate battery, it works fine. At the plug I get 12.0 volts when the brake pedal is depressed. I ran another ground just to make sure the ground is OK. Apparently while I have 12.0 volts, there must not be enough amperage to pull the bulbs. Any ideas? Thanks.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 854
Likes: 1
From: The burbs of Denver CO
I can't figure from your description any reason for it not to work. There just isn't much to that system. If when the brake pedal is pressed you have 12v at the light, everything is good from the pedal thru the switch to the light. If the bulb is good, and the ground effective, the light will come on. There has to be a broken link in there somewhere...
Melting Slicks
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 2,240
Likes: 42
From: Baltimore, MD USA
12 volts from the Stop Hazzard Fuse goes to the brake switch.
When the brake pedal is pressed, one part of the switch provides 12 volts to the turn and hazzard switch. The other part of the switch provides 12 volts for the Rear High Mounted Brake lights.
By pass the switch and see what happens.
Remove the black plastic foot well panel under the driver side dash.
Find the brake light switch.
It should have the following wires.
Terminal A has two white wires going to it.
Terminal B has an Orange wire and a White wire. This is the 12 volts.
Terminal C is a Light Blue wire and goes to the Rear High Mount Brake Light bulbs.
So if you pull the wires off of Terminal A and the wires off of Terminal C and short them together, the Rear High Mounted Brake lights should come on. If they do, the switch is bad.
When the brake pedal is pressed, one part of the switch provides 12 volts to the turn and hazzard switch. The other part of the switch provides 12 volts for the Rear High Mounted Brake lights.
By pass the switch and see what happens.
Remove the black plastic foot well panel under the driver side dash.
Find the brake light switch.
It should have the following wires.
Terminal A has two white wires going to it.
Terminal B has an Orange wire and a White wire. This is the 12 volts.
Terminal C is a Light Blue wire and goes to the Rear High Mount Brake Light bulbs.
So if you pull the wires off of Terminal A and the wires off of Terminal C and short them together, the Rear High Mounted Brake lights should come on. If they do, the switch is bad.
Thread Starter
5th Gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Thanks guys. It was the brake light switch. I was thrown off by the 12.0 volts I was getting when I pushed on the brake pedal. The contacts were not making a good enough connection to pull the proper amperage, but would read 12.0 volts with no load. A little contact cleaner, and a burnishing tool took care of it. May not last, but at least I know where to look next time.
