04 Brake Light Help

[cjjackson85]

So my driver side brake light bulb went out, parking still worked ( i could see 1 of the 2 filaments broken). I replaced the bulb (New bulb is an exact match in voltage,wattage, 2 fillaments, etc) and the problem still exists.

I thought it could be an issue with the socket itself so i took the passenger socket out and tried it in the driver side and the same problem exists. Driver socket in passenger socket has the same results.

Now the plot thickens when i put the sockets back in their original sides now my brake lights IN BOTH SIDES dont work at all. The center brake light on my spoiler works, rear turn indicators work and backup lights work but my brake lights dont work at all. Lol what the heck did I do? All the filaments look fine still! :redbrick:

I checked out fuses in both the knee area of the dash and in the engine bay but everything looks fine. I think the fuses were called STOP and TAIL.

Any ideas?

 

[cjjackson85]

Bump for a new day

 

[DocMT]

Let me see if I understand you correctly----

You noticed that your brake light wasn't working on the driver's side. So you pulled out that bulb and saw that one of the two filaments in the bulb were broken. So it was pretty obvious that replacing that bulb would fix the issue. But when you installed a new bulb, the brake light still didn't work. You checked the new bulb and both filaments were still fine (unbroken).

Is this correct so far? If so, you need to check if you have 12 volts at the socket with the brake pedal depressed. Do you have a volt meter or a multimeter to check it?

Also, how did you swap the sockets from side to side? Aren't they hardwired?

 

[cjjackson85]

Let me see if I understand you correctly----

You noticed that your brake light wasn't working on the driver's side. So you pulled out that bulb and saw that one of the two filaments in the bulb were broken. So it was pretty obvious that replacing that bulb would fix the issue. But when you installed a new bulb, the brake light still didn't work. You checked the new bulb and both filaments were still fine (unbroken).

Is this correct so far?

Yes

If so, you need to check if you have 12 volts at the socket with the brake pedal depressed. Do you have a volt meter or a multimeter to check it?

Yes, I have a mutimeter I will check the voltage once I get off work.

Also, how did you swap the sockets from side to side? Aren't they hardwired?

The bulb plugs into a socket that can be easily disconnected. The socket then twists into the center of the tail light housing. I think I must have gotten the sockets mixed up because I switched them up and my passenger side is working fine so my problem is now isolated to the driver side. When I put the passenger side socket into the driver side tail housing it works properly. When I put the driver side socket into the passenger side it fails so I believe the problem is the socket itself. I am going to order one and I will report back with my results.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[DocMT]

Okay, that makes more sense. Definitely does sound like it is related to the socket. It still seems strange that the socket is faulty if the filament was blown.