While driving around town on Saturday, a man pulled up beside me to let me know that my brake lights were not working. My immediate thought was the switch on the brake pedal had the plug come off or was broken. This evening, I decided I'd handle it as I expected it to be an easy fix.
I checked the brake light switch and found it was working perfectly fine. There was power to the switch so I decided to check the socket at the back and found it did not have power. After a little research, I learned the brake light feed runs through the turn signal switch before going to the rear of the car. This was a little disappointing as I assumed it was broken and I replaced it not that long ago.
I checked the wiring to the turn signal switch and it had power when the brake pedal was pressed. I decided I'd go ahead and take off the steering wheel to see if the turn signal switch had any visible damage. I didn't see anything and as I was working with it realized that when I put the column together months ago during the power steering upgrade, it sliced the brake wire in half.
It was in a place that I could solder it back together so I did so and then covered it with heat shrink. I then tested it out and everything worked great. I also noticed that the horn feed was pinched in the housing too but not enough to damage the insulation. With those two issues fixed, I put it back together and now have functioning brake likes again.
I'm glad this did not require any parts and its now fixed. This means, however, that have not had brake lights since August of last year and had no trouble getting it inspected.
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