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I did a search of the archives & have some good info to start with, but would like to ask a couple specific questions.
Background:
1990 240 DL Wagon (recent acquisition), 5 speed manual, cruise control, came equipped with trailer hitch and trailer light converter box (5 wires in from car, 4 out to trailer).
Symptoms:
First noticed brake lights didn't work yesterday(all three not functioning) when I hooked a trailer up. Tail lights and turn signals worked on car & trailer. Bulb Failure Warning Light (hereafter refered to as BFWL) came on with headlights/parking lights on, out with lights off or when trailer disconnected. Cruise works fine. No brake lights with trailer disconnected. Don't know when brake lights quit functioning - BFWL first came on when I plugged into the trailer (head lights on).
Diagnostics:
I presume that both tail lights are connected through the BFWL relay, but my trailer running lights are only hooked up to one of the car's tail lamp wires. So running the extra trailer lamps on one tail light is probably the cause for the BFWL illuminating. Not related to brake light problem. It should be noted that the brake light feed for trailer light converter box is connected similar to the tail light feed, i.e., connected to only one of the car's brake light wires.
Since all three brake lights are out, it's unlikely that the problem is at the bulbs. I checked the Fuse (#7, 8 amp) - it's good, 12 volts on both sides, connections/fuse ends cleaned when car first purchased (Dec 04). Problem probably lies at the pedal switch or inside the BFWL relay. Next step will be to check for power on the blue/red trace wire going into the BFWL relay with brake pedal depressed: no power present, check brake pedal switch; power present, short out connections between blue/red, yellow, and yellow silver wires (wire colors taken from a previous post), step on pedal and look for brake lights.
Questions:
1) Are there two switches on the brake pedal; one for the cruise (vac/electric) and one for the brake lights? I've had to mess around with the clutch pedal's cruise switch and don't recall seing two switches on the brake pedal.
2) Does the feed for the center brake light in the tailgate window pass through the BFWL relay the same as the left & right hand brake lights? Or to ask a different way, if I connect the left and right brake light feed wires directly to the wire coming from the pedal switch (bypassing the BFWL relay) will all three brake lights illuminate?
Any help appreciated!!!
Joe in St Louis
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