Help with brake light not working.

[02_explorer_sprt]

Hello everybody,

Just want to say real quick that I love this site and have already gotten a ton of great information from this site. I have always had Fords, and they are great cars. I've had an escort, explorer, ranger, and I am now the new proud owner of a 02 Explorer Sport.

Other than needing shocks and brakes its in good mechanical condition, with 85k miles on it. The one problem I am having is that the left (drivers side) rear brake light does not work. The brake lights work front and rear on the right, and the front left one works but blinks very quickly when I activate the turn signal. The bulb is fine, so it seems like the issue is elsewhere. The explorer has had three previous owners, so I'm not sure what kind of work or modification has been done to it. Maybe someone had an alarm installed and that interfered with it?

Anyways, sorry to ramble, but was just wondering if anyone has any ideas or could point me in a direction of where to start tracking down the problem. I would hate to get a ticket for not having a brake light when I've only had this car for a few days! Thanks everybody!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Since the bulb works, the next step is to see if the socket has power. You could use a test light with a long needle front.

 

[02_explorer_sprt]

hi thanks for the help. I guess I forgot to mention but i did connect my multimeter to the socket to test. I tested with the parking lights on and emergency flashers on. the minor (which I assume is the dimmer parking lights) gets power but the major wire was getting nothing. so it looks like its either something with the wiring or maybe a connection somewhere? I kinda assumed it wasn't a fuse because all other three lights blink. Thanks for the help.

 

[mrs-beze]

The problem is the bulb. Eventhough your brake lights are working you still have to replace the bulb so that the portion that controls the signal can be working. I just had the same exact problem make sure all bulbs are longlife because budget wise bulbs will blow out fast!