No brake lights! Problem solved!

[johnygogo]

Well, I noticed last night when I backed up in front of a window that I didn't have any brake lights!!! God knows how long I've been driving like this and I'm thankful I never got rear ended. I checked all my fuses and they all looked to be fine.

After doing a little research I found out that my brake light switch was done/broken/burnt. I'm righting this just in case it happens to someone and it might help them out. It's located just above the brake the pedal and it cost me $20 to fix. All you have to do is disconect the plug, give it half a turn and pull ou the switch and install the new one. It took me 2 minutes.

GM part# 96874572

Here is a couple of useful links I got my information from. (hope I can do this)

http://www.fixya.com/cars/t1233265-2004 ... lights_not


A picture of the switch and location on page 7.

http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/h18.pdf


Hope this helps someone in the future! I sure feel safer with brake lights working now.

[AMMsterz]

same prob here! it took an observant motorcyclist to inform me at the traffic light... gotta have it fixed asap!

[paulsaveo]

Last year when my stop switch went bad, I had the opposite effect, my brake lights worked, they just wouldnt turn off, people at work were constantly telling me I left my lights on LOL

[petrified.rabbit]

actually, lit filaments bend in a crash. so if you get rear ended and the filaments are still straight, the lights weren't on.

[serega12]

There are many scenarios in which my lights would be off and I still could get rear ended. For example if I slow down for obstruction on the road, then start speeding up to the 35 mph speed limit, and the person behind me has been going through songs in their his the while time and is still going 60 mph...

[petrified.rabbit]

thats when you check skid marks, and not the ones in your underwear :P


i took a month course on crash forensics for my damage appraisers license.

[serega12]

That would be a fun class to take imo.

[serega12]

Rabbit. How can you tell if the bulbs were on or off if they are all led?

[petrified.rabbit]

i dont know, you cite them for non oem equipment?


it was an interesting course. but just like everything else it doesn't give ALL the answers.

[Fighting Irish]

Just replaced mine today. My wife was driving her Fit behind me this morning because she had to take the Fit in for a recall ( Honda recalling 700,000 Fit models over engine fears - 97k in U.S. — Autoblog

Of course, like a woman, she says "I think your brake lights weren't working or something, it was hard to tell. The sun was shining." I don't know how it can be hard to tell if brake lights are working. They either are or they aren't. Anyways, I checked, and sure enough, the damn switch was stuck in the off position. Went to the dealer, paid $15 with tax for a new stop lamp switch. PITA, but I'm glad she caught it before I got pulled over. Also, the switch is kinda tricky- it comes in the box with the plunger thing stuck all the way out. When you install the new switch, turn the car on, press the brake pedal down as far as you can, and pull the plunger out as far as you can. The plunger thing can be hard to pull out, a little more force than I thought. So I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out how to adjust the pedal so that the damn lights would turn off (Don't do that). Wish I had known that before I went down that route. Here are some pictures to show what I'm talking about



As you can see, the switch (white thing connected to yellow plug with black base, small black plunger is touching a nickel I had inserted in there temporarily) has a plunger which is pushed almost all the way into the switch. You don't want to have a nickel in there, but instead press down on the brake all the way, and pull out the plunger at the same time. This resets the switch (I think). I hope it saves at least someone a little aggravation. Now I could replace the switch in <2 minutes.

As an aside, my wife used to drive a ford escort. While attempting to pull it into the garage one day for an oil change, I had to floor it just to get the thing to move- obvious problem with the auto tranny. After I asked my wife why she didn't mention it to me, she said "oh, I thought the car was just getting old". But, at least she gave me a solid "yes" on my next 2 car purchases...