help,rear brake lights not working!

Man I am having the same exact issues except my b/u lights do work. If you figure out what the issue is let me know and same here. Ive gotten to the point of almost wanting to sell the truck its irritating as hell
 
Ok well you have power going to the back but no lights.
You need to check for power with the bulb in and the pedal pressed. You have to probe the actual wire near the tail light for this.

If you still have power near tail light, you have a bad ground. Simple as that, you may need to make a new ground for that wire.

GonOvr, just wondering but isnt the exteior of the light bulb socket the grond section for the bulb? because, the the bulb has 2 filliments and the one that turns on with the head lights works just fine!

so if that is the case then my ground is good cause the other part of the bulb works and i only saw 3 wires. i guessing that the wires are 1 hot(stop light),1 hot(night time filliment) and 1 ground!

not sayin that you are wrong i just dosent make sense beacuse 1 of the 2 filliments in the bulb works just fine!oh and i cant test, i cant find my volt tester so this makes this a little harder!
 
Not to insult anyone's intelligence... BUT... is the brake pedal making good contact with the stop light switch?

I have seem multiple cars/trucks not start because a plastic pad being worn out and not allowing the pedal to push down on a clutch switch. Maybe your brake switch is the same case?

If this is good then you really need to purchase a decent multimeter. It's hard to troubleshoot electrical gremlins without a multimeter.
 
Not to insult anyone's intelligence... BUT... is the brake pedal making good contact with the stop light switch?

I have seem multiple cars/trucks not start because a plastic pad being worn out and not allowing the pedal to push down on a clutch switch. Maybe your brake switch is the same case?

If this is good then you really need to purchase a decent multimeter. It's hard to troubleshoot electrical gremlins without a multimeter.

in order to make the brake switch active their should be no contact with the pedal its self!
 
fixed

i would like to thank all that helped me figure this out! my lights are now working. after i pulled the dash apart pulled the guage cluster and speakers! i was just about to start cutting the tape around the main set of wires and looked at my fuse cover and pulled the tail light fuse for the 100th time then i noticed that their was a fuse that just said "15A STOP". i pulled the stop fuse and low and behold the fuse was blown! then the word stop light ran through my head over and over.so just a note to all thoes with the same problem slow your self down and think twice before you do any thing!
 
i would like to thank all that helped me figure this out! my lights are now working. after i pulled the dash apart pulled the guage cluster and speakers! i was just about to start cutting the tape around the main set of wires and looked at my fuse cover and pulled the tail light fuse for the 100th time then i noticed that their was a fuse that just said "15A STOP". i pulled the stop fuse and low and behold the fuse was blown! then the word stop light ran through my head over and over.so just a note to all thoes with the same problem slow your self down and think twice before you do any thing!

I just noticed last night my brake lights weren't coming on with the pedal. Glad I read this before I did anything! I checked my STOP fuse and it's blown!
 
I just noticed last night my brake lights weren't coming on with the pedal. Glad I read this before I did anything! I checked my STOP fuse and it's blown!
Hey something to look out for, several years ago I was having the same issues. Checked for possible shorts because it was blown, come to find out it was blowing due to high resistance caused by a loose connection in the fuse panel itslef. I apologze if I repeated something else someone said.
 
was reading through this thread to find a solution to a problem im having regarding the same thing and you seem to know your stuff Mechanical is my thing not electrical, but the issue im having is that my driver rear night time running rear light is not working but when i step on the brakes every light that should come on does so its like it works but onyl when i have the brake pushed in could it be a short? fuses where fine didnt pull any just looked quickly, what are some other usual suspects ??
 
was reading through this thread to find a solution to a problem im having regarding the same thing and you seem to know your stuff Mechanical is my thing not electrical, but the issue im having is that my driver rear night time running rear light is not working but when i step on the brakes every light that should come on does so its like it works but onyl when i have the brake pushed in could it be a short? fuses where fine didnt pull any just looked quickly, what are some other usual suspects ??
Do you have trailer wiring?
The reason I ask is most places that installed it back in the day used crappy butt slices. I had a similar problem on another 4runner ended up having to replace the wiring completely as those butt slices rotted away the wire and shorted to others in the harness back by the tailgate. Sounds like what your having problems with you have a cross somewhere

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
 
Do you have trailer wiring?
The reason I ask is most places that installed it back in the day used crappy butt slices. I had a similar problem on another 4runner ended up having to replace the wiring completely as those butt slices rotted away the wire and shorted to others in the harness back by the tailgate. Sounds like what your having problems with you have a cross somewhere

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
I'll check out the trailer wiring. for sure. thanks
 

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