Break light problem, need some suggestions

[Pondscum]

My passenger side brake light has stopped working. Everything works fine on the driver side and all the other lights work on the passenger side.

I tried changing the bulb to no avail, and i have a brand new passenger brake light assembly i plugged in and is doing the same thing.

I'm guessing a broken wire somewhere or maybe a ground? Just need some guidance where to start looking next.

Searching the forums and the closest problem to this i could find was someone with the exact opposite problem and it turned out to be a problem with the circuit board in the brake light assembly, but with me having a brand new brake light assembly that is doing the same thing as the one currently installed i'm ruling that out as the cause.

I did plug both the current one and the new one into the driver side and they both worked fine so this is something specific to the passenger side.

TIA

[Buckshot500]

If you tried another tail light assembly, then you must have unplugged it from the harness. That harness wire for the brake light, goes to the drivers side, where there should be another connector. This ties it in with the drivers side brake light. Check that connector to make sure it's hooked up still, it might be disconnected.

[Pondscum]

I've done some more researching and here is where i'm currently at with this problem and more confused then before.....



With the parking lights on: Driver front doesn't work, all other parking lights work on both sides front and rear and the headlights work.

With the driver blinker on: All lights blink correctly front and rear and the green arrow on the dash blinks.

With the passenger blinker on: The front and front side lights are solid on, the rear doesn't work at all, the green arrow on the dash is solid on.

With the hazards on: All hazards work except the passenger rear.

With the brake pedal pressed: The passenger brake light doesn't work.

With the Jeep in Reverse: Both rear white lights work.

[Buckshot500]

It really sounds like you've got a bad bulb somewhere, or one bulb is wired backwards. Try switching the two forward facing blinker bulbs & see if anything changes. The headlights & reverse lights are both on separate circuits.

[Less Than Joe]

Do your turn signals auto cancel when turning? Meaning when you complete the turn, the turn signal turns off.

I had a problem where a spring inside the steering wheel broke, and was jammed into the contacts. When I turned the driver turn signal on, all lights on the vehicle would flash, including the third center brake light. (not including headlights of course). Passenger signal worked fine. When I stepped on the brakes while driver signal was on, they would all turn solid on (including dash arrow).

So the contacts for brake light and left signal were touching, resulting in either brakes or turn signal turning on both circuits.

So if one of your turn signals doesnt shut off, chances are a spring broke in the turn signal switch and jammed up.

[Pondscum]

Do your turn signals auto cancel when turning? Meaning when you complete the turn, the turn signal turns off.


Yeah they turn off just fine when i make a turn so that isn't the problem, thanks for the suggestion though.

[dodger889]

turn the 4ways on and off a few times might clean the contacts off.

[RockRidge]

The rear tail lamps have two filiments in them, one of them on the passenger side is burned out. Just replace the Bulb, and make sure your grounds are all good.
(The clue is the blinker stays solid)
Ed

[Pondscum]

Alright guys i have two problems fixed of apparently a 3 problem thing.

1st: One of the filiments in the driver front parking light was bad, bulb replacement fixed that.

2nd: The Turn signal relay was bad which is what caused the passenger front and side turn lights to stay solid on. Replacement part fixed that.

3rd: This is currently the only thing i have wrong right now:

No passenger side rear brake light, hazard light or turn signal. The rear passenger side parking light and reverse light work.

This is NOT a bulb issue, i have put 3 different known good bulbs in with the same result, this is NOT a fixture issue since this is a brand new fixture, was doing the same thing as the old fixture and i've swapped fixtures from side to side.

Okay here is where it gets weird.....Pushed the brake pedal and checked for voltage at the lamp socket brake contact and it had 12 volts. Then i went to put the bulb in, and the bulb doesn't light with 12 volts present. The other contact (the tail light) works fine and does light. Same holds true for the flasher, it gets the voltage, but when the bulb is present it doesn't flash even though the correct voltage is being sent.

I checked for shorts/grounds as well and none are present so i don't believe it is an amp problem either.

So the big question is: When you have 12 volts going to the fixture/bulb socket and a known good bulb what causes the light not to come on?

[steeve555]

Check your grounds again. Pull the light assy off and clean up any corrosion. Do drivers side also. You have a bad ground. Just because your simpton is on the RHS does not mean the problem is on RHS. The LHS Tail Light lense gets broken (from hitting with the fuel nozzel). This lets humidy get in and corrodes inside. If there is corrosion inside either of the light assy that can cause a bad ground.

[Pondscum]

Check your grounds again. Pull the light assy off and clean up any corrosion. Do drivers side also. You have a bad ground. Just because your simpton is on the RHS does not mean the problem is on RHS. The LHS Tail Light lense gets broken (from hitting with the fuel nozzel). This lets humidy get in and corrodes inside. If there is corrosion inside either of the light assy that can cause a bad ground.

I have pretty much narrowed it down to a bad ground the question is where is it coming from. I'm going to run a ground wire directly from the negative battery lead and see what happens. I sprayed everything down with electrical contact cleaner and removed any corrosion i saw which was minimal.

Wow this problem is really annoying...

[Pondscum]

UPDATE:

So i finally got around to replacing my water pump since it had a minor water leak that i just never got around to fixing. Turns out that somehow magically fixed my brake light problem at the same time.

The only thing i can think of that makes any sense is that the water that was leaking out of the pump was somehow making contact with a wire in the system causing the short....

Crazy i know, but sometimes crazy works...

[Karma]

Hi Pond,
I'm glad you fixed your problem. But, I don't think it is fixed; like Arnold, it will return. These types of problems are not magic. They have definite causes and equally definite fixes totally related to the cause. When a problem just disappears, without the cause being found, it almost certainly will return. The objective of all fixing is a definite identification of the cause. Sometimes this is very difficult but it must be done.

In your case, you might have unknowingly bumped or pulled a wire which was making bad contact and corrected the problem while you were changing the water pump. If you really think is was the water flow (I doubt it) then trace the flow. It may lead to the problem. (I doubt it.)

Sparky

[Buckshot500]

I'd take all the lighting connectors apart one by one, clean them & put some die-electric tune up grease in them.