Brake Lights

[mikethornton]

I was on my way back from Brands hatch and a friendly TVR owner pulled me over to let me know my brake lights weren't working. The bulbs are fine so I checked Mr Heath's manual. Apparently there is a button by the brake pedal that may not be connecting. I had a look and everything seemed connected. Any ideas on what I can do?

Go to a garage would be an obvious one.

Cheers

[taylormj4]

Mike,
1) try looking at the fuse for the brake lights
2) Give the brake light switch (by the pedal) a good pumelling with your finger (push in and out several times with vigour!), sometimes the contacts stick inside the switch so that even when the button comes out, the contacts don't changeover -maybe spray with cleaner or change the switch. You could check the switch by disconnecting the wires and testing with a multimeter or a battery and a bulb.

Matt

[ribol]

Easier to pull the two wires off the brake light switch, touch together with ignition on. If lights come on switch faulty, if not either power supply to switch is no good (fuse etc) or wiring loom to rear lights has a break/bad connection. More chance of me winning lottery than both bulbs going at the same time.


Ivan

[marlboro]

The brake light switch on the foot pedal appears to be a weak (ford) item. It's well cheap so replace it first.

[tapchapman]

Had the brake light switch replaced on my Chimaera two weeks ago ... less than £10 so if it's a bit dodgy it is well worth replacing

[mikethornton]

Thanks for taking the effort to reply. I will check all this out at the weekend!

Merry Christmas

[Harrigan]

Hi Mike,

Had exactly the same problem on mine. Start with the switch on the brake pedal. I took mine off, opened it up, (easy, need a small screwdriver and a bit of patience), cleaned the contacts with switch cleaner, et voila!

It appears that when the switch operates there is a bit of arcing on the contacts which results in a build-up of carbon which then stopes the switch working...

Harrigan