1x Brake light not working

[GladiatorCleaning]

Hi all,

I did a quick search of the forums but didn't find anything conclusive relating to this issue so decided to start a new thread.

Our N/S brake light keeps failing.  Every other bulb in the cluster, and all of them on the opposite side are fine.

The bulb still works, it's just that over time as the vehicle moves and bumps around, it causes it to have a poor connection with the cluster.  With someone holding their foot on the brake I can wiggle the bulb into a position where it works again.  

Wedging a piece of plastic in between the bulb and the holder seems to help for a bit, but eventually we're back to it not working.

We even replaced the cluster with a new one to see if that helped, and changed the bulb, but after a while the problem came back.

Has anyone else encountered similar?  I find it most odd that the problem keeps happening in the same place, despite changing all the parts.  I'd say it was a design flaw but the othet side is ok!

Thanks!

[Multispacer]

Hi all,

I did a quick search of the forums but didn't find anything conclusive relating to this issue so decided to start a new thread.

Our N/S brake light keeps failing.  Every other bulb in the cluster, and all of them on the opposite side are fine.

The bulb still works, it's just that over time as the vehicle moves and bumps around, it causes it to have a poor connection with the cluster.  With someone holding their foot on the brake I can wiggle the bulb into a position where it works again.  

Wedging a piece of plastic in between the bulb and the holder seems to help for a bit, but eventually we're back to it not working.

We even replaced the cluster with a new one to see if that helped, and changed the bulb, but after a while the problem came back.

Has anyone else encountered similar?  I find it most odd that the problem keeps happening in the same place, despite changing all the parts.  I'd say it was a design flaw but the othet side is ok!

Thanks!

Had a similar problem with my Berlingo [but on the later B9 version] changed the lamp and even interchanged the cluster brake light still didn't work, then I noticed the pin in the connector to the cluster on the car wiring side had partly burnt away so it was no longer making contact with the socket on thre cluster side. I can only put it down to the fact that the brake light being a higher wattage, is also higher current and over time [my B9 was 2008 vintage and this only happened in 2023] it wasn't making a good contact, so burnt away part of the pin. My solution was to effectively bypass the connector on just that one [supply wire] that fed the brake light. I cut the wire going to the burnt pin about 10cm back from the connector and then spliced a new wire that I soldered directly to the corresponding piece of track on the circuit board of the track. So the cluster wouldn't be 'hard-wired' I then put a quick release connector on the new single wire, so the cluster could be removed if needed. 
Never had any problems after that and still worked fine when the vehicle was sold.

[GladiatorCleaning]

Ok, thanks for the insight, I'll have a look at the connector next.

[jj9]

If it's not the connector plug as advised by Multispacer try to tighten the bulb holder.... there will be 2 tabs that are bent down into the hole that the bulb body goes into, these are what the side pins of the bulb engage with. As the bulb is duel element type (Tail & Stop) one tab will be longer than the other so that the bulb can only fit in one way. Carefully try to bend these out towards the centre, you just need to move each one a fraction to eliminate any looseness of the bulb. 
Also check that the contacts that the bulb terminals sit on are clean, give them a scrape with a sharp flat blade screwdriver.

Scrape the lead terminals on the bottom of the bulb so they are clean. 
If you have bent the tabs slightly when you fit the bulb is should be tight, once you have rotated it so the pins engage with the tabs pull the bulb in an outwards direction as if you were trying to pull it straight out, this will make sure the pins are up against the tabs.  

In general ....
A lot of brake light problems are caused by prolonged use of the brake lights, like sitting at traffic lights or in a traffic jamb with the brake pedal pressed rather than using the handbrake. I've seen cars pull up in a car park and the driver sit with the brake lights on for 20 minutes while they mess on with their phone 

Brake light bulbs give off a lot of heat and can cause the plastic bulb holders to deform or burn out the terminals. I've seen a few melted holders along with scorched wiring and it's always on the brake lights....get your foot off the brake & use the handbrake if you want to avoid any problems.  


Cheers.

.