Hi all,

Just bought 2003 Type-R and have a questions that I hope someone can help with. It seems that my brake lights aren't working as they should be, basically the centrally mounted light works fine but the two rear lights don't work at all. Now I have only had the car a few days so my knowledge of it's workings are a little poor however looking at the manual it shows that the rear light fixings have 3 bulbs (excluding the fog light). These are reverse light, indicator and brake/tail light, therefore I assume that the tail light does two jobs i.e. brake and tail light. When the lights are on the tail light works fine but it doesn't brighten when the brakes are on, when the lights are off it doesn't light up at all when the brake is depressed. Strangely the central light in the spoiler works fine, are they linked or separate? I happened to be at Halfords today and they didn't know what was going on, does anyone have any ideas? I'm betting it is something really obvious but I can't think of what it could be. If it was a fuse wouldn't the tail light not work, or if it the brakes are independent of the tail light how does the central light still work?

Any help anyone can give would be appreciated.

 

sounds like they use 1157 bulbs, and it has 1156 bulbs in it...1157 has dual filament, 1156 has single thats the first thing that springs to mind

 

Yeah make sure you have two good 1157's in them. The 1157 has two filaments (one dim, for the tail lights, and one bright, for the brake lights) so it is possible for one filament to burn out and you'd have tail lights but not brake lights. Since the center light works that means the fuse, switch, etc. up front are OK though there could be a broken wire in the trunk area.

 

Your brake and taillights are on separate circuits.

Edit: Both side brake lights use the same ground, which is different from the high mount center brake light. Trace the two black ground wires from the side brake lights to their common ground location. The common ground wire is either broken or disconnected.

 

Thanks everyonefor the tips, I'll have a look and see what I can find. As a car novice, is tracing the wires quite tricky or will it be a simple job?

 

The tailllight and brake light connectors and wires may be visible inside the trunk/hatch. If not, you may need to remove a panel(s) to see them. Black wires from the left and right brake lights should converge to a common ground screw attached to the metallic body framework. This common ground wire may be broken or disconnected.