I was told today that my brake lights are not working. My third brake light works but the other's don't. I checked the fuses inside the interior of the car and they were all good. I checked the bulbs and they were fine as well. The blinkers and hazards and tail lamps also work but only the third brake light in the spoiler will light up. I just changed the front passenger side blinker but other than that I haven't done anything with the electrical. Any help would be greatly apprciated.

I also tried removing the front blinker and turning it around but that didn't make any difference.

 

check the connection in the rear of the car. when you open the hatch, to the back left just under the plastic panel is a connector. check to make sure you have voltage there. its a square 4 pin connector. the third brake light and the tail lights are connected in different spots. the 3rd brake light connection is at the rear interior dome light.

 

I have no power at the 4 pin connector at the rear of the car behind the plastic panel on the driver's side.

 

yes you do, i have it on my 2000, i can take a picture of it tomorrow. if you take off the plastic trim that holds the speakers, in the rear is a metal tap that holds the rear most clip. look on the underside of that, thats there the 4 pin connector is.

 

I'm helping him out with this problem. We took the connector apart and used a test light to check for power. One side of test light to ground the other to each pin individually. None of the pins have power. Which pin is the one that goes to the brake light? Where does that pin get power from? Does the wire that controls the brake lights come directly from the switch or does it come from somwhere else?

 

i dont have my book with me, i will look later. but here is how it's setup...

since the brake lights and the turn signals are the same bulb.
1- ground
2- left turn/brake
3- right turn/brake
4- running lights

so neither brake or turn signals work in the rear?? how about the running lights? i will look at my book later tonight and get back to you about the exact diagram

 

The turn signals, hazards, reverse, and running lights all work but the brake lights don't. We went all the way to the brake pedal and removed the switch but it is working fine. Also the fuse is not blown and has not been blown. This is driving me nuts and I appriciate all your help.

 

Here's what wer found tonight. On the 4 pin connecter, the hazards and the blinkers share the same wires. The running lights are on their own wire and the reverse lights are on their own wire. My question is what wire does the brake light use. On the switch for the brake there are 4 wires. One set is on the front of the switch and the other set is on the back of the switch. The set on the front has one hot and the other wire goes to the reverse lights. I'm assuming this is something to do with an A4 car, but his car is a M6, so I don't think it does much. I think the other two wires are for the middle brake light and the main rears. You said the middle gets power from the dome light correct? Do you know what the two wires on the back of the switch go to? Do you have a diagram on where the wires go after they leave the switch?

 

You're wasting your time checking any connector near the back of the car. You've already said that the running lights, turn signals, and hazard flashers work so we know that you have good connectivity to the tail lights and from them to ground. Since the brake lights on Firebirds use the same bulbs and wiring as the turn signals, you can eliminate any wiring at the back of the car being the cause of the problem.

There are two connectors on the brake switch but only one concerns you now (the other is for cruise control, etc.) - it has an orange input wire and a light blue output wire. The orange wire has constant battery power from the STOP/HAZARD fuse and the light blue wire is the output to the brake lights. We know the switch itself is okay because your third brake light works so there's no point doing any testing there either. The light blue wire runs under the dash toward the left A pillar. About 3" from where the black wire splits out of the harness to go to the grounding bolt in the left kick panel, there is a split in the light blue wire. One part goes up the A pillar, across the roof to a connector near the rear dome light, and on to the third brake light. We know that part works. The other part goes to a flat 11-pin connector attached to the base of the steering column. This is the part of the circuit that eventually gets to the brake lights and is where we need to check.

The connector also has a light blue with white stripe wire - you want to check the light blue wire without the stripe that's the last one on the edge of the connector. Test with a meter or test light that you get power there when the brake pedal is depressed. If not then you've got a break in the wire between the harness splice and the connector (this is not likely). Also, double check that the connector is tightly plugged together - that may be all that's causing the problem.

From the 11-pin connector the circuit goes up the steering column into the turn signal switch. This is unique to the Firebird - Camaros don't have the same wiring because they don't share brake lights and turn signals in the back. The power is then split between the left and right tail light output wires and goes back down the column to that same 11-pin connector. This time the wires are the yellow and the dark green ones that are in the two positions next to the light blue input wire. The yellow is the left rear output and the dark green is the right rear output. Test both wires to make sure you have power when the brake pedal is depressed. If everything else has checked out so far then I suspect this is where you'll find the problem. If there is input power on the light blue wire, and the connector is tightly plugged together, but there is no output on the yellow or dark green wires then your turn signal switch is the source of the problem.

One of those things will have to be the source of the problem because from that connector back to the tail lights the brakes and turn signals share the same wiring.

 

Thanks White Bird. You answered my question. We'll check it out later tonight and go from there. That blue wire that your talking about on the brake pedal switch actually goes to the reverse lights on his car. We'll post up later about what we have come up with. Thanks again.

 

Thanks for the help. It was the connector at the base of the steering column. It was not connected well. Transamin00 and WhiteBird00, thank you very much.