This is weird. Third brake light works. Turn signals, hazard and taillights work. But the brake lights don't work. I don't know how long they have been out. Where do the third light and main brake lights split? Do they split?

first check the fuse for yoru brake lights and make sure its' good.. next you might wanna check the switch under your brake pedal to be sure its' working correctly.. just a guess hope this helps

John

Yeah, it's probably either the fuse or the brake light switch. That's what happened on my dad's truck. All lights, signals, flashers worked, so we tried the fuses inside of the truck. Every one of them were good, so he bought a brake light switch. My grandpa was looking under the hood and found another fuse panel. There was one in there, one of the huge fuses, that was burnt out. He bought a $3 fuse, and all of them worked. It had blown when we plugged in the trailer lights. I'd say try the fuse first.

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Fuzz busters are for those who are worried about being caught.

I checked the fuses. They all looked ok. How do you isolate and check the brake switch?

switch is on top of brake arm above pedal. its white plastic. when pedal is up against it , it breaks contact. soon as u push pedal down contacts inside close. Id just replace it, they only cost a few bucks. U just push the new one in and when u step on pedal first time it resets itself. If switch and fuse are ok, either all the brake bulb filiments are burned out (not likely) or theres a wiring problem, broken, shorted, pinched. Id guess the switch is just worn out though.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 12-13-2000).]

Had this same problem on my 87 trans am. I removed the brake light switch above the brake pedal. Cleaned contacts with emory board and the switch worked fine. The contacts had become oxidized. Also, you could replace the switch.
Paul

It sounds like there are separate circuits in the brake switch for the tail lights and the third brake light. Is this correct?

sort of. they both run off the same switch. They have nothing in comon from there back. These circuits are well mapped in the Haynes book.

Another posibility is that the turn signal selector in the steering column is hosed. The brake light circuits go from the pedal switch to the column to the rear lights.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 12-14-2000).]

Lots of ideas. I'll take a close look at the brake switch and steering column this weekend. I recently pulled a lot of car alarm crap out and "restored" a lot of the factory wiring under the dash. Maybe there was a method to all that madness after all.

i forgot about that, third brake lite wire goes straight from switch, (dont remember for sure if its got its own) and the brake lites does go from switch to turn sig stalk. that could be where its at. You have to pull steering wheel and replace the switch in colum if it is. I just put one in a Firebird cost is $40 for AC Delco.U can test circit with a test lite at switch and at brake lites to help narrow it down.

My cruise sometimes doesn't work. Maybe my turn signal stalk is going bad, or the connections wearing out.

take the trim out from below the column and check the connectors on the wires comming down from the steering wheel. Brake and Cruise problems at the same time could be those connectors aren't tight or have been damaged by someone working under the dash.

The brake lights and high mount both work off the same switch. TC lock also works off that switch in auto cars. If there are 2 switches the second one is for the cruise.

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 12-20-2000).]

Found it. The brake light switch is bad. There is a bad connection inside the switch. The white wire, which goes to turn signal switch, was not getting 12V or any voltage when the brake switch closed. The blue wire, 3rd brake light, gets 12V. Removed the switch. Removed black cover (6 tabs). Examined switch. Found bad contact. Pushed plunger and bent bad tab back into position. Reassembled and installed. Works great. And cost me zip :-)

You'll want to replace it soon. Once a contact does that sort of thing it usually doesn't last long. If new ones cost allot you can get these off plenty of other GM cars. take yours to the scrap yard and make sure they match. There aren't to many diferant styles of them.