ok, tonight i just discovered that my brake lights don't work when i press the pedal. can anyone give me like a checklist so i can trouble shoot this problem? nothing else is wrong (i.e. no dash gauge probs). the only problem that might be something is that my chime doesn't work (the thing that makes a sound when you leave the lights on, etc...).

-GTAman

 

Check your fuses. When I got my first 87 when I was 16 I hated that chime and pulled fuses until it went away. (dumb). Well the same fuse for the chime, is also the brakelights...

 

which fuse is this? what does it say on the fuse block? is it the one that says "tail"?

 

on your brake light switch, the one that gets released when the pedal goes down..



center should be +12V

the other two should get power when the pedal goes down.

 

where's that?

 

take the bottom trim piece off and you can see up under the dash by the pedals.



theres a white switch (possibly two of them)... the switch is pressed in when the brake pedal is up... that turns them off.

when the brake goes in, the switch cuts on.

 

hey guys i've got an update for ya. before taking off the trim panel to check the brake switch i checked the fuse block. Lo and behold i found the culprit of all my problems and then some. i had posted fairly recently that my chime (audible alarm) had stopped working and i had the fasten seatbelt light coming on everytime i put the parking lights on and when my foot was off the brake. back to the point, i went burnt fuse hunting and found that my hazard light fuse was busted. luckily i had some blade fuses on hand. once i changed the fuse not only did my brake lights work again, but my chime worked again, my hazards (obviously) worked again, and that stupid seatbelt light didn't show it's face. ah, nothing's better than a job well done.

 

ok guys, i'm bringing this thread back to life because my "solution" didn't work for long, infact it lasted 2 weeks and now i'm just blowing fuses every 2 minutes. here's what happened:

+first i took out the flasher relay. blew a fuse, brake lights go out.

+second, i took out the audible alarm (big blue box). tried it again, blew a fuse, brake lights go bye bye.

+ third, cried because i have no clue what's doing this.

i check out the brake switch idea. there are two switched that rest on that tab on the brake pedal. what's the deal with 2? i have no clue which one is broken. the only thing that looks odd it the one on the right is loose and wobbly. i wonder if that's the little bugger that's messing me up?

help PLEASE!!!

 

also i forgot to mention that it happens mostly when i turn on the parking lights.

 

Did you ever figure out what was causing this because I just stared haveing the same exact problem

 

yes i did, and it surprised me!

i mentioned somewhere that i took apart my taillight lenses and checked each bulb and bulb socket for any inconsistencies. they were fine. then i found a temporary fix (forgot what it was) then after that failed i examined the bulbs again. still fine, but the second time around i checked the 3rd brake like for giggles and BAM there was my problem! there are two (2) screws that hold the 3rd brake light assembly to the box that surrounds it under the spoiler. what happened was one of them got loose and lodged itself under one of the contacts of one of the bulbs of the 3rd brake light so everytime i pressed the brake pedal the screw kept on shorting out the circuit. i put the screw back where it belonged and i haven't had any more problems. i hope this helps you out.

-Mark

 

Here is a similar problem to his brake light one. When I first got my 86 Firebird the third brake light was all burnt out, its the third eye style as compared to the spoiler style. A while later I replaced all the bulbs and my brake lights stopped working. The third brake light still worked, but the tail lights didn't get any brighter.

So the other day I was putting in new tail light assemblies and I decided I was gonna try and figure it all out. So me and my buddy checked the fuses and then replaced the burnt out one. Still didn't work. So we thought maybe the third brake light was shorting it out. So we took all the bulbs out of that and viola, it worked again.

Well, kind of. Know the tail lights turn on, including all the dash lights and all that. And there is no noticeable difference in the brightness of the tail lights when the lights are on.

If you guys have any ideas on how to fix this, I'd appreciate it.