Alrighty, so the other day in heavy traffic, the driver behind me warned me that my brake lights were not turning on, and that he almost hit me (as if i didn't notice him on my ***..). So I began to worry as it could become a dangerous situation one day. I had a friend drive behind me and while on the phone with each other i would hit the brakes and 4 times put of 10 he said they would turn on. And while parked i would do the same tests and recieved similar results. I checked out all the fuses. The bulbs are all fine. Im guessing it is a grounding problem? but where can i check for those?

Oh, and everytime i hit the brakes, i do hear the low click sound.

 

40% is not a very good percentage.
I'd start with the brake light switch. If you a mm you can check the operation of the switch.

 

There's a good chance you're using the wrong bulbs in there. The correct brake light bulbs have offset "nubs" on them, but the replacement bulbs found at many auto parts stores (i forget the bulb #) actually have nubs on the base that are even, not offset.

(or I may have it reversed, I don't remember)

With these even nubs you can still put the bulb in, but it doesn't sit securely on the light base and makes intermittent contact, hence the intermittent working/not working.

Check the bulb and make 100% sure it has the right base. Also check to make sure the contacts in the light base are "sprung out" enough to make good contact.

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alternately it could be a switch problem. You can test this easily by having a friend hit the brake pedal while you hold a multimeter to the light base, like he said above.

 

Not sure if you are Manual or Automatic transmission. If AT, are you having trouble, sometimes, to get the car out of park? If so, your brake light switch might be on its way out.

 

ok, the bulbs have never been changed since i purchased the car last year. And everything worked fine up untill the guy warned me. I know this because when i was test fitting my cf trunk my friend was messing around in the driver seat hitting the brake pedal. Where is the brake switch? under the brake pedal?

Thanks guys.

 

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Post #8