No brake lights!!
1989 200
OK, first
let’s make sure you have power to your brake switch.
Pull down the carpet material that
is up above your knees when you are sitting in the car. Just undo the top three
clips, you don’t need to pull the whole thing down.
Follow the steering column toward
the firewall until you see a switch just about where the brake pedal meets it.
You should see two wires (green with red trace and blue with a red trace) going
to a round ,brownish colored switch. With a 12 volt
meter or 12v light connect one end to the chassis for ground and the other end
touch the green/red wire. You should have 12 volts to this point, all the time.
If you
don’t then this is your problem, you need to get 12 volts to this side of the
switch.
IF YOU DO. You have 12volts to your switch. “Let’s check if the switch is working”. Continue on.
Keep the ground connection on your
meter but connect the other side of the Switch, the blue/red wire. Step on the brake pedal, your meter should
read 12 volts or the light should go on if you are using that type of meter.
If you
don’t then this is your problem, your brake switch is bad.
IF YOU DO; then the brake
switch is good. Continue on.
Sit in the drivers seat, reach under the dash with you left hand, just
above your knee. There is a round, Red Can (Bulb Failure Sensor) with about 12
wires going to it through a bumpy looking black connector. It is held in place by a spring clip, pull it
toward the firewall. It will drop down with wires attached.
Look for
the blue wire with the red trace (blue/red) going into the connector. It will
be next to a yellow/silver and next to that a solid yellow wire. These two
yellow wires run back to your brake lights.
Slightly
separate the Red Can from the bumpy black connector so the metal pins from the
‘Can’ are starting to show. Again take your light or meter and have one end
grounded and with the other end, touch the metallic pin that goes into the
connector that is attached to the blue/red wire, step on the brake and you should
have 12 volt (or the meter light will light depending on what type of meter you
have). This test was to check to see if the blue/red wire was broken.
Now, between the connector and the Red Can
(Bulb Failure Sensor) where you have the metal pins exposed a bit, with a paper
clip or some other metal object, even a small screwdriver, touch ONLY the
blue/red and the yellow/silver one next to it. With you making an electrical
connection between the blue/red and the yellow/silver wire, step on the brake. You should see one brake light turn on (the
left one I think). If a brake light works then your Bulb Failure Sensor is bad
for the brake lights.
Now
to fix this you can do three things; The forst two will bypass the Bulb Failure
Sensor.
1.
Cut the two yellows and the blue from the connector and solder them together.
This will totally bypass the Bulb Failure Sensor for the Brakelights. or
2.
Mark the Red Can with a marker as to which pins are the blue/red trace, yellow
and yellow /silver. Look at the bottom of the Red Can I think these pins are
numbered “54S, 54L, 54R”. Then totally disconnect the Red Can, take it out of
the car and solder a wire across these three pins. You must keep the wire very
close to the body of the can so you can plug it back in for the other light
sensing. And make very sure that you do not make any connection to the pins
next to it. By jumpering these three pins you will be bypassing the failure
sensing.
After you
have soldered the wire (should be about the thickness of a small paper clip) to
the pins, install it back into the connector and with any luck…..the brakes
will work again.
It’s easier
then it sounds. When you start to look at it, things will make more sense.
3.
Open the Bulb failure sensor and look for bad solder joints and resolder
them. This Sensor has two round circuit
boards in it. There are several long metal wires that attach the boards. The
vibration of driving break the electrical connections between these boards. So
just resoldering usually solves the Brake light issue.
