Brake lights all kaput!

skyship007 · Dec 12th, 2012, 17:09

Some crazy German woman jumped out of the car behind me at the stop lights and yelled something about no lights. I pulled into a bus stop and confirmed that none of the rear brake lights worked. I thought a failure of the brake lights resulted in a warning light, or it did last time one failed.
I am guessing that the only cause that would stop all 3 working is a broken brake pedal switch or a connection to the warning box. The fuse is OK and everything else is working fine, so I ordered up a new brake switch and hope I guessed right. I will find out tommorow.
Any advice on how to change it, apart from what is in Haynes and any thoughts on any other part that could cause such a failure without any warning lights.

skyship007 · Dec 13th, 2012, 12:48

Got my car back this morning and it was just a corroded fuse, the holder was fine, but some muppet put in a non Volvo, or made in Germany fuse. Looking at a fuse is sometimes not good enough to figure out if it is kaput. It was replaced by one made by Bosch.
I am not going to ask the no 2 engineer in the local garage for an opinion about anything electrical in future. If I had a good digital tester I could have found it myself by measuring the resistance across the fuse holder, but I am rather short on tools at present. I must admit that I might have seen the corroded contact if I had put my reading glasses on.
I am going to ask Santa for a magnifying glass and a multimeter.

stephend · Dec 13th, 2012, 16:38

Tut, tut: and you didn't check they were working before you set off, like we all do every time... ahem...!!

Dec 12th, 2012, 17:09	#1
skyship007 Premier Member Last Online: May 2nd, 2018 08:14 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: DownSouth	Brake lights all kaput! Some crazy German woman jumped out of the car behind me at the stop lights and yelled something about no lights. I pulled into a bus stop and confirmed that none of the rear brake lights worked. I thought a failure of the brake lights resulted in a warning light, or it did last time one failed. I am guessing that the only cause that would stop all 3 working is a broken brake pedal switch or a connection to the warning box. The fuse is OK and everything else is working fine, so I ordered up a new brake switch and hope I guessed right. I will find out tommorow. Any advice on how to change it, apart from what is in Haynes and any thoughts on any other part that could cause such a failure without any warning lights.

Dec 13th, 2012, 16:38	#3
stephend Premier Member Last Online: Dec 23rd, 2023 21:20 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: S. Wales View Photos By: stephend	Tut, tut: and you didn't check they were working before you set off, like we all do every time... ahem...!! __________________ 1989 740 GL 2.0 estate 2000 V40 2.0 (gone) 2005 Toyota Avensis 2.0 estate (gone) 2012 Ford Mondeo 2.2 TDCi estate 1999 Land Rover Discovery 2 TD5

Dec 13th, 2012, 12:48	#2
skyship007 Premier Member Last Online: May 2nd, 2018 08:14 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: DownSouth	Got my car back this morning and it was just a corroded fuse, the holder was fine, but some muppet put in a non Volvo, or made in Germany fuse. Looking at a fuse is sometimes not good enough to figure out if it is kaput. It was replaced by one made by Bosch. I am not going to ask the no 2 engineer in the local garage for an opinion about anything electrical in future. If I had a good digital tester I could have found it myself by measuring the resistance across the fuse holder, but I am rather short on tools at present. I must admit that I might have seen the corroded contact if I had put my reading glasses on. I am going to ask Santa for a magnifying glass and a multimeter.

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