Dodgy brake lights

[-JUT-]

Little help please... my Chim's brake lights have started playing up. Apparently they are coming on randomly as I drive along, and not both at the same time, it flickers between the left and right ones. Is this likely to be a bad earth, the brake light switch itself, or something else? Cheers

[tvrbob]

I don't know why they would come on a different times. The normal fault is the brake light switch plate.

It's an easy fix. The plate that holds the switch has bent a little. The switch is on a plate above the brake pedal. The switch is pressed in when your foot is off the pedal. When you depress the pedal the switch is released and the brake lights come on. Over time the plate can bend upwards thereby not allowing the pedal to fully depress the switch.

All you need to do is get yourself into the foot well and bend it back a little.

[surrey_wombat]

I had a similair problem on mine and purchased a new switch but that did not rectify it (I was actually enroute to have an MOT when they decided to stop working so surprise, surprise it failed!). I then started investigating loose connections as everything looked sound at the lights themselves and the bulbs were fine. I peeled back the wiring access panel on the NS bulkhead just behind the passenger door and simply undid and then reseated all the wiring harness connections visible there. It did the trick. They still fail now and then but now it's only a matter of firming up the connections.

[-JUT-]

surrey_wombat said:

I had a similair problem on mine and purchased a new switch but that did not rectify it (I was actually enroute to have an MOT when they decided to stop working so surprise, surprise it failed!). I then started investigating loose connections as everything looked sound at the lights themselves and the bulbs were fine. I peeled back the wiring access panel on the NS bulkhead just behind the passenger door and simply undid and then reseated all the wiring harness connections visible there. It did the trick. They still fail now and then but now it's only a matter of firming up the connections.

Hmmm, now that you mention this, the muppet who replaced my roof recently had that panel off fiddling with the wiring for the interior light... wonder if he disturbed something while he was there...