Third Brake Light Works Occasionally, Need To Fix For Inspection!!

[Texplorer]

My high mount 3rd brake like works and then doesnt work. Unfortunetly it didnt work when I went to get my inspection today but as soon as I came back and reversed into my driveway it was working fine. Can anyone help me out with this situation?

 

[ma96782]

Check the fuse, bulb and elc. connection (where the bulb contacts the prongs)..........it may just need some cleaning up.

Aloha, Mark

PS.............IF that doesn't get you back on track..........then test wires for elec.

 

[Texplorer]

I took out the ballast (because its a neon, not a typical bulb) and played with the wires a lil which didnt seem to work. Does anyone know how to take out the neon itself, I took a look around and couldnt figure it out. I guess I can try to use a meter to see if the wires are carrying any juice.

 

[Texplorer]

Well I went outside to fiddle with it and wouldnt you know everything is working....... right now. Im hoping its a loose wire somewhere, anyone know anywhere I should be looking for loose wires. I know there is a plug going into one side of the ballast and two wires coming out if the other side. Any other wires I should check?

 

[config]

Has anyone you ever measured the voltage coming out of the ballast unit? I know it's high voltage. Is it about 90v?

 

[budwich]

There was a post of someone replacing the light with LED's (somewhere under lighting or there abouts). He had the original problem of the light not working... replaced the ballast and bulbl I think.... still no go (I think the replacement units were junk yard stuff)... anyways he went the led route with a pretty good write up. The bottom line was that Ford wants big dollars for this, so the led route was a "practical alternative". As far as the voltage is concerned, I think you might be surprised to find that the voltage is actaully much higher... in the KV range. If you scan around , you can see that in other auto custom lighting stuff. The key is large voltage.... very very small current... that's what neon is all about.