2000 Mazda Protege: No brake lights!! Why?
m...@privacy.net
lights were not working. There are three of them and
NONE are working!
I cant imagine all three bulbs going out at same time
so checked for any blown fuses but they looked OK to
me.
So.... it has to be a relay or maybe switch in the
brake pedal, right?
Do brake light systems use relays or work direct from
switch in pedal?
Hachiroku ハチロク
Interesting question!
I would check the switch first. Chances are it's gone flat.
As far as a relay, is there a Mazda dealer you can talk to? Or, do a
search through Google. I have factory manuals for all my cars by Googling
them.
MasterBlaster
<m...@privacy.net> wrote:
> I cant imagine all three bulbs going out at same time
> so checked for any blown fuses but they looked OK to
> me.
I see many cars cruising around with only the high-mount, or only
one side still working. Years ago I worked at a gas station, and
a car came in with all *6* bulbs burned out, so I CAN imagine it.
Have you actually pulled any of the bulbs to see if it *is* burned out?
Adam
Definitely start with the brake switch. Secondly check or just replace
the light relay. Finally make sure you have return or ground to those
lights.
m...@privacy.net
>Have you actually pulled any of the bulbs to see if it *is* burned out?
No..... but will today
I guess its possible but ALL at the SAME time?
m...@privacy.net
>Definitely start with the brake switch. Secondly check or just replace
>the light relay.
Ok on brake switch
But I'm not finding any info on if the brake light
actually work THROUGH a relay!
aarcuda69062
.
news:655ebc9e-4575-49ee...@26g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...
_____________________________________________________
Quite a few years ago while a friend's '86 RX7 was still relatively
new, his brake lights went out and asked if I'd look at them. None
of the filaments were bad nor were there any ground corrosion
or other issues and given that that the car had never been in an
accident requiring body work, I was relativelty certain there were
neither resultant wiring nor connector problems so I checked the
brake light switch at the pedal, and to my amazement it was fine.
The issue turned out to be the 'light monitoring annunciator' (for
lack of a better term) system at the top, middle of the dash board.
The control board for that system (in the lower left kick panel)
had developed a crack ironically knocking out the very lights it
was designed to monitor and alert the driver to should any bulbs
burn out. He hadn't mentioned to me (and I wasn't aware)
that the device existed and had recently stopped functioning. I
offered to repair the board but at his disgression I simply and
easily bypassed the board and he was back on his way.
hls
<m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:qet8759fdaoedq018...@4ax.com...
I have seen it... On a Ford, that had some body damage and a rain put
a good deal of water into the trunk area. The water, as such, did not
get into the taillight sockets, but the condensation from the wet-down
did. Every one of the bulbs blew.
I dont want to argue should'a, would'a, or not possible. It happened.
Paul
How often do you check them?
I check them at least once per week along with
tires, horn, wipers, etc.
m...@privacy.net
>The control board for that system (in the lower left kick panel)
>had developed a crack ironically knocking out the very lights it
>was designed to monitor and alert the driver to should any bulbs
>burn out.
Amazing!
A good example of so much complexity that the
complexity itself introduces failure points in the
system!
Thanks for sharing!
m...@privacy.net
>> But I'm not finding any info on if the brake light
>> actually work THROUGH a relay!
>
>They do not.
Is that true of all vehicles? If yes, how come? A
safety feature of some kind?
m...@privacy.net
>Definitely start with the brake switch. Secondly check or just replace
>the light relay. Finally make sure you have return or ground to those
>lights.
OK
Question for the group
What abt replacing all the bulbs with LED versions>
That possible and what do LED replacements cost? Is it
cost prohibitive?
hls
<m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:ls79755rpgr6enugs...@4ax.com...
It is not cost prohibitive, but these LED replacements often do not put
out the levels of light that an incandescent bulb for that application would
do.
Make sure your old bulbs are bad before redesigning your system.
Often bad grounds, bad wiring, turn out to be the culprit. Brake light
switches
do fail, but not very often.
Do your diagnosis work first.
Scott Dorsey
Why make the thing more complex than it has to be?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Scott Dorsey
>Question for the group
>
>What abt replacing all the bulbs with LED versions>
>That possible and what do LED replacements cost? Is it
>cost prohibitive?
For the most part, the LED replacement lamps are pretty dreadful. They
aren't very easily visible from the sides. Most of them are just a single
LED array that go in place of the lamp.
It _is_ possible to make good LED brake lights, but it requires a big array
of LEDs and it would require them to be specific to your model car.
Plus, tail light bulbs don't go out often. Just change the bulbs if they
are bad, and keep spares in the glove compartment.
Steve W.
Not true for ALL vehicles but most do not use a relay for the brake lights.
One less item to fail that way.
In your case the brake switch gets it power from the 15 amp fuse,
To a green wire that runs to the brake switch.
From there it follows the green/yellow wire out of the switch through
the harness and back to the three brake lights.
If this vehicle has cruise control the Green/yellow wire also feeds a
signal to the cruise module to tell it brake position.
Check the fuse first.
Then look for 12 volts at the switch on the green wire.
Step on the pedal and see if the power goes through the switch.
If you have cruise control take the vehicle out and see if the cruise
works and that stepping on the brake disengages it. If that part of it
works then the switch is probably OK and the problem is farther back.
The wiring diagram shows that all three lights share a common ground
wire as well. It is possible that wire has failed. The way to find that
out would be to find the BLACK wires from the brake lights and tap into
one with a grounded wire.
--
Steve W.
m...@privacy.net
>Not true for ALL vehicles but most do not use a relay for the brake lights.
>One less item to fail that way.
Ok that's what I was thinking but needed confirming
Thanks guys!
I will take your advise and check fuse and work from
there
m...@privacy.net
>For the most part, the LED replacement lamps are pretty dreadful. They
>aren't very easily visible from the sides. Most of them are just a single
>LED array that go in place of the lamp.
Thanks gusy will forget abt LED!
aarcuda69062
wrote:
> aarcuda69062 <none...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> >> But I'm not finding any info on if the brake light
> >> actually work THROUGH a relay!
> >
> >They do not.
>
> Is that true of all vehicles?
No.
> If yes, how come? A
> safety feature of some kind?
In most cases, it is not necessary to use a relay for the brake lights
but there are some exceptions;
Trucks: many when equipped with a trailer towing package will have the
trailer circuits connected via relays. The gauge of the wiring has
gotten so small that the wiring is not sufficient to carry the current
for an extra set of lamps.
Network: many cars (and trucks) are now coming with lamp control modules
which could be considered to be a relay of sorts. There is typically
one main power feed to a lamp control module, the individual function
switches send a network command to the lamp control module which handles
the physical act of switching the lamp on.
Tim Wescott
To have all burn out at the same time -- rare, but believable.
To have them burn out over the course of several months, and no one
bothered to tell you -- not at all surprising.
Manufacturers can do anything they damn well please vis-a-vis the brake
lights as long as it works when it leaves the dealer lot, but in general
they switch current to the lights with a switch on the pedal*. Even if
that switch doesn't actually turn the lights on it'll still likely be
there (the next most likely thing is a switch that senses brake fluid
pressure). Look up under the dash, there should be a switch mounted such
that when the pedal is _up_ (brakes off) the switch plunger is
depressed. If your lights aren't all burnt out then change the switch --
it's probably a waste of the 5 minutes it takes to actually check the
switch, unless you replace it and find that it doesn't fix the problem.
* At one point the manufacturers were proposing to use a switch on the
pedal to tell a computer that you're pushing on the brakes, then have a
computer in the trunk that actually switches the lights -- I don't know
if they ever did it in anything, and at any rate a Protege isn't that
fancy.
m...@privacy.net
>To have all burn out at the same time -- rare, but believable.
>
>To have them burn out over the course of several months, and no one
>bothered to tell you -- not at all surprising.
Guess what guys..... this was the problem!!
I replaced ALL lamps in rear tail lights and now have
working brake lights again!!
I guess above poster was correct..... the lamps did NOT
go al out at once but must have gone out one at a time
and as long as one was working then no one stopped me
to tell me. When the last one went out.... an older
lady stopped me to tell me I had no brake lights at
all!!
Bottom line I am deeply thankful to ALL who offered
help!!
Now I just have to figure out why cruise control quit
abt a month ago
russell
Nate Nagel
try the cruise again, sometimes it won't work when there is no current
to the brake lights... seriously!
nate
--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel
m...@privacy.net
>How did you change the High Mount Brake Light?
Kind of a bitch
Had to remove rear deck trim to get it out!