My Brake Lights are Out

[etlsport]

those bulbs have two filaments, the brake light filament typically goes out first because its on off on off all the time, but the tail light will funtion properly just nothing will happen when you hit the brakes... but that doesnt explain the top brake light, that one is LED and im sure they havent all gone out

[Y33TREKker]

Just curious whether you ever got this resolved Thmstec. If not, something else you could try would be to disconnect each of the three lights one at a time to see if there might be a problem with one of them that is affecting all three, like maybe an individual grounding problem, or shorted portion of a circuit.

Building on what Greasmonkey was saying also, if you have a voltmeter, checking between a chassis ground and all of the Red wires in the connectors that go to the brake switch, both noise suppression filters, and all three of the light assemblies in question will tell you if you are getting power at all the places it's supposed to be.

And you never did say whether you had been doing any other work to the VX lately that might have in some way contributed to the brake lights stopping working; ie: a connector that might not have been snapped back together as well as it could have even though it felt like it did at the time, something simply not getting plugged back in at all, etc.

[Thmstec]

Thanks for all the help guys!

Turned out to be the brake light modulator having gone bad. The internal circuitry fried and the it wasn't grounding properly. Back to stock and all is good.

[pbkid]

phew.... i was starting to wonder if you were gonna get your horse back on the road....

[Riff Raff]

Thanks for all the help guys!

Turned out to be the brake light modulator having gone bad. The internal circuitry fried and the it wasn't grounding properly. Back to stock and all is good.

Just wondering-- did you discover the "Brake Light Modulator" was the culprit by yourself OR you end up taking your VX to a certified mechanic/auto repair shop?

In any event, I'm glad everything worked out in the end and your VX is back on the road. Your tale of brake light troubles & its resulting solution is of great help to the VX community should this same issue ever happen to one of us.

[Thmstec]

Just wondering-- did you discover the "Brake Light Modulator" was the culprit by yourself OR you end up taking your VX to a certified mechanic/auto repair shop?

In any event, I'm glad everything worked out in the end and your VX is back on the road. Your tale of brake light troubles & its resulting solution is of great help to the VX community should this same issue ever happen to one of us.

I was trying what Y33TREKker was saying, and when I removed the 3BL from the circuit, it worked. From there it was basic troubleshooting to determine the modulator was the culprit.

[Y33TREKker]

When you say 3BL, are you talking about the high mounted LED brake light in the spoiler (as in 3rd Brake Light)?

If so, was the modulator in the spoiler itself with the LED's?

Just curious as I hadn't seen anything similar in the circuit diagrams associated with the spoiler light, except for the noise suppression filter.

Whatever the case, good to hear the problem is solved. Definitely not a good thing to be without brake lights.

[Thmstec]

Yes, 3BL= 3rd brake light. The modulator was aftermarket, wired in just before the circuit gets to the light.