Brake light stopped working!

Hi guys

Wondered if anyone has any advice on how to fix a faulty brake light. I dont know how long its been broken for but I only noticed in lat week and ride in central London every day so think it would be a good idea to get it fixed.

Symptoms:

If lights are on, the brake light is permanently activated, even when the brakes arent applied. Applying the brakes makes no difference (there is something to be said for a permanenelty bright rear light though......)

If lights are off, the rear light is off, but braking does not activate the brake light.

I have tested in both these scnarios with both front and rear brake.

Any advice appreciated - want to fix it before its upcoming MOT!

Cheers

Aaron

For clarification, if the lights are off, the brake light is off too?

could be the spring or the clip...

but the light going off with the other lights sounds a bit weird

sounds like the bulb is not correctly seated or you have a short

by not being correctly seated i mean bridging the side light connectors at the same time

could be a busted fuse these somtimes affect the alternate circuits found this out rewiring my rear light one day

For clarification, if the lights are off, the brake light is off too?

Yep - when the lights are turned off, the rear light is off as expected, but I get NOTHING from the rear light when using either the front or back brakes.

When the lights are on, the brake light is permanently on (ie even when brakes not applied).......

Originally Posted by Aaron

Yep - when the lights are turned off, I get NOTHING from the rear light when using either the front or back brakes.

When the lights are on, the brake light is permanently on (ie even when brakes not applied).......

I reckon the brake light is NOT on when the lights are on. I reckon it is just the normal tail light.

Try changing 1 of the bulbs. There are 2 elements in each bulb. One for the tail light and 1 for the stop light.

If this is not the right answer I will eat my cacks! (Not really)

thanks for the advice - will check out the bulb when I get more than 30 spare seconds of tinkering time in the daylight!

I was pretty sure that the brake light WAS on when the main lights were on as it is so bright, but maybe it's just that the tail-light is v bright anyway and, as you say, the brake light bulb has gone. That would indeed explain the mystery.......so you might not be eating your cacks just yet (but put clean ones on just in case as the rear light does seem unnaturally bright!)

Cheers

Maybe a shorting earth somewhere