Rear Brake light not working

devonaravenhold

Ok, so here is the long and short of it.

My 06 Chevy Equinox driver side break light is not functioning when the break pedal is applied. All fuses are fine, tried new bulbs, even tried switching the right side bulb (because that side of the break lights work fine), and no go. I've tried pushing the break switch under the steering column (Quick question there, should the motor be on while I do this or no? I did it while off.). The left break light (center light on left side of car), works just fine when in park, when the emergency flashers are on, when the turn signal switch is turned off of AUTO and pretty much any other time that the break is not applied directly. Thoughts? This issue has already gotten me pulled over once and ticketed...can't afford any more of those. Thanks in advance!

joejoeson

Have you tried taking it to a shop? That would be the easiest but if you want to fix it yourself you might need some expensive electrical tools, so weigh the cost. If you want to fix it yourself, try a power probe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krAUIq3bWIg, you can activate electrical components directly with the probe, so you can send power to your brake light and see if it works. If it does, then the component which activates the bulb is fine, and a problem exists from the fuse to the bulb, so an open circuit in the wiring, for example. If the component doesn't work at all even with a new bulb, then the component the bulb screws into might be shorted out or have a bad ground. A digital multimeter is a little less expensive and can also test out the circuits, but it might be difficult if you have an open in your wires, you might have to remove the door panel to get to these wires. A mechanic shop can do this unless you are looking to doing it yourself, but it might cost just as much to get these tools and you still don't know exactly what is wrong.