Annoying Issue With Rear Brake Lights

[m1tch]

Hi all,

My driverside brake light is getting a bit annoying now, basically when the sidelights are on everything is fine, when I press the brake the driver side light goes off completely - the 3rd brake light and passenger side work fine. I know that the bulb is fine as I have fixed the thing about 8 times now by removing the driver side tail light and reseating the bulb and then it work again, until it probably hits a bump in the road and I am back to square one again.

I know that the bulb holder has the 2 base contacts and a contact at the side - does anyone know which of the contacts are for the 'brake' light part? I am tempted to spend some more time on the thing tonight to see if I can bend the contacts up slightly. I have a feeling that one of them might simply be one of the connections shifting slightly when the car is driven - but only the contact that works the 'brake' part of the light as the sidelight is fine.

I have also checked the connector block that plugs inside of the boot and that's fine and as I have said I can easily fix the issue by removing the bulb and reinserting it, I have also given the contacts a slight sand to remove any varnishing on the surface so I know its a good contact (when it does contact!).

The whole acronym of 'Fix Or Repair Daily' seems to be correct as I have fixed this bulb and reseated it so many times to far, usually when I park up when I get home I fix it again for the following morning.

[Mariner]

The combined tail / brake lights bulbs have 3 metal prongs that stick out on the side of the bulb earth. It is possible to put the bulb in incorrectly which can cause all sorts of strange things to happen. I would first remove the bulb and then carefully check which way around it goes in. One of the prongs is higher than the others which should match the socket.

[m1tch]

5 minutes ago, Mariner said:

The combined tail / brake lights bulbs have 3 metal prongs that stick out on the side of the bulb earth. It is possible to put the bulb in incorrectly which can cause all sorts of strange things to happen. I would first remove the bulb and then carefully check which way around it goes in. One of the prongs is higher than the others which should match the socket.

The bulb will only go in 1 way due to the way the socket is designed as I believe the nubs are offset - I will check again tonight though, it might just be a case that the connection points are just worn so aren't fully contacting with the bulb at all times due to being in the same position for years.

[Martin116]

Hi, I have a similar problem, except that the brake light comes on as well as the tail light, when it shouldn't. It only does this on the driver's side! 

Anyone seen this problem before?

Martin 

[unofix]

18 minutes ago, Martin116 said:

Anyone seen this problem before?

Yes, many times.

[unofix]

Just checking that it is now January ?

No effort November is long since past.

[anon]

Yes, the  trouble with Sunday drivers is that they tend to have Sunday problems! We share the road with them.

[Martin116]

33 minutes ago, unofix said:

Yes, many times.

And the answer is...

[anon]

Pretty obvious if you can be bothered to open it up and take a look.

[Martin116]

10 minutes ago, anon said:

Yes, the  trouble with Sunday drivers is that they tend to have Sunday problems! We share the road with them.

It started yesterday actually!

[unofix]

You have a faulty stop/tail lamp. One of the elements inside the bulb has short-circuited with the other element, causing the tail light and brake light circuits to become joined. Replace the faulty lamp.

[Danny cj]

I've had a few ford's over the years and had faults where when I put indicators on all the cluster dim or go off and on..

Most of the times it was the earth connection on that cluster to the body work...( undo..clean connection and refit)

Worth a look