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A simple failure really and quite common, fuse #7 gave up the ghost with a partially melted end cap. Fuse 7, however is one I think is rather important, ie. brake light power, especially in full go and slam the brakes freeway traffic.
The only reason I noticed that the fuse was failing is that every time I hit the brake pedal, the tire pressure monitoring system display that I added winked out, which is also powered by you guessed it fuse #7.
I can assure you that in this morning's traffic, if I hadn't noticed, someone from behind would have let me know with their front bumper!
So on the drive home this evening I thought about this simple/common failure and realized that in a car that doesn't have mods, the driver has no way of knowing if the brake lights are out due to a failed fuse (bulb failure circuit won't report this failure)... hmmm....
So, for those of you who don't like being rear-ended and it being your fault, perhaps adding a low brightness green indicator LED somewhere on the dash that is hooked to the output side of fuse 7 might be a good idea... LED goes out, fuse is gone... no brake lights! That being said, a better idea might be to hook the LED into the output of the brake switch so the LED only comes on when the brake is pressed, if it doesn't come on, there is a problem!
Yes, once I noticed the problem, I pulled off the freeway, cleaned the contacts and installed a new fuse.
Just a thought, hopefully it will prevent some damage and or injuries out there!
jorrell
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92 245 278K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!
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