Brake Light Problem

[erock1313]

My wife was driving behind me and noticed that my taillights work but once I brake, my driver side brake light goes out leaving only the passenger side still on. When I let my foot off the brake, the taillight comes back on. I started with the obvious and replaced the bulb, but still; the driver brake light does not come on when braking. Any ideas of why this would be or what would cause it?

For the Record, I have a 1993 Suzuki Sidekick JLX 16-Valve 4wd.

[prcruiser]

Hmm, thats probably a ground problem in the bulb socket. Sometimes those sockets get rusted making contacts to fail.

Check the tail and brake wires for that lamp; they must making contact when send 12v (brake) the bulb will turn off because you have your tail lights on (12v).
Remember the math: (+) + (+) = (-)

[erock1313]

***UPDATE***

Ok, so I just found out that my driver side brake light only goes out if I have the parking or headlights on. What in the world can this be. If the parking and headlights are off; the brake light works fine. This only happens on the driver side.

I have to have the emisssions/inspections done and I am pretty sure that this wont pass because of this problem.

CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP!?!?!?!

[jtgh]

look. attach


unless yours is special or foreign ,etc....

[jtgh]

two possiblies
ground is overloaded with all lights on, or
some nimrod , has a TRAILER light , trash job going on there.
look for wire nuts and splices in harness going in or out or a 3 to 7 wire conversion box, scabbed in .


ground problem kills tail and stop.

the problem is on that Green/white wire, well if driver is on the left, PR?

I looked at a96 schem , and its same wires, same colors.

the black wire is ground and goes to the body, and is shared with side lamps.

the circuits simple, if some thrashed it, all bets off.

[prcruiser]

Exactly like I said but better explained. thanks jtgh

[erock1313]

Thanks for you fast responses, I will check it out in the next day or two. I know there is a hitch and I have seen where it is spliced with connectors inside of the Driver Rear Tailight. I will undo these and try to re-connect and see if that has any problems, along with checking the grounding. I will keep this updated.

[jtgh]

hitch grimlyns.

[erock1313]

Ok guys, so I got pulled over this morning (5:45am - on my way to work) because of the brake light problem (the only time I really use my Zuk in the dark). My Temporary Registration to get the problem fixed expired yesterday (only last 15 days). So with it being the holiday season and all; the cop was nice enough (after explanation and demonstration of problem) to only give a warning for the brake light issue. Unfortunately, he was really an undercover Scrooge: because he decided to impound my car anyways. Lucky for me, I chose my attitude for the day and just had to kinda laugh at the whole thing. So to no avail; this is my update and why this is driving me crazy......

1) I found that the brake light(s) will work during the day when no other lights are on.

2) As long as the parking lights(?) are on, the driver side rear brake light will not work

3) If I removed the fuse for the Tail/Dome lights, the Driver rear brake light will work.

4) My Tail/Dome fuse slot does not the hold fuse very tightly (found this out when headlights were on and door ajar because there was no headlight reminder buzz unless I jiggled the Tail/Dome fuse. If the buzzer/rear parking fuse was out of place; brake light would work. If buzzer/parking was buzzing; brake light would not work.

5) I found that a trailer hitch wire (brown - hooks to green/white) was broke off. Accidentally touched it to metal frame when headlights were on and i think(?) the brake light came on for a minute (could I be seeing things???)

6) Removed trailer hitch wire splices all together and reconnected all wires damaged from splice with quality connectors and fittings and still did not work.

7) Tried to Bypass the left side all together by jumping wires from driver's side brake/tail light to the passenger side tail/brake out of curiosity to see if it would work (and eliminate whether it was connection/connectors etc.) and the same problem occured. Parking lights on = no drivers rear brake light. Parking lights off = brake light worked. Go figure?!?!?!?!?!?

8) Checked (visually) all wires coming in out and around and nothing appears to be abnormal; unless I am missing something.

So here are my conclusions:

A) Either there is something actually wrong with the bulb socket (which does not explain why the brake light only does not work when parking lights are on)

B ) There is a problem with the Stop Light Switch

C) There is a problem with the actual Parking light lever twist switch on steering column

c) Or that damn Tail/Dome buzzer fuse has an issue. Only problem is, it only has two wires coming out of it...the white (constant power) and the Green/white. it does not appear to have a seperate wire for each brake light.

So now I am wondering.....should I replace all the wires? Should I replace the Fuse box??
Or should I replace the Tail light Socket???

I was granted another 15 days because of my semi-unique situation to try and find out; but I hope someone can give me the clue that I am somehow missing.

BTW - thank you guys for all of your help and giving me the schematics etc. From all the reading I have done online and especially in this forum, I should almost be ASE Ceritifed. Last week I had the typical idle problems and fixed them simply; with the IAC/MAF cleaning techniques learned here.

THANKS!!!! Now if I could just fix my light so I don't have to swallow my pride and go to a REAL Car Doctor.

[prcruiser]

Check on bulb socket. Ok let me explain this the best I can (I speak spanish). If you see the bulb socket it has 3 wires; ground (BLACK), tail (RED & YELLOW )and brake (GREEN & WHITE).

If you say that the stop lights works perfectly when the park/tail lights are off but once you have the park lights on the drivers side brake light wont work could be because:

1. The ground wire from that socket is not working properly and its using the park/tail wire as ground when they are off and once you turn on the park lights and apply brake, both wires have current ( positive + positive = negative) making that bulb to go off.

2. The bulb socket is rusted or just damaged making not working properly.

***Try to use a 12v light tester and test the socket.


Let me know if understood me.