Brake light failure...

[roughpastels]

hey all, i noticed my external headlamp failure light come on recently and i saw it was the rear driver's side brake light so i replaced the bulb and it keeps failing. after a week of replacing bulbs, i finally bought a new panel for it, changed all the bulbs and it was working just fine for about 2 weeks and this morning the same damn bulb burned out again. it's obviously not a problem with the panel since i just replaced it so it must be a wire going to that specific socket on the panel that keeps burning out. not a big issue but it's burning my ass and i'm not going to take it to the dealer and get whacked 400+ for a diagnositc and labor fee. any suggestions?

[Proven Guilty]

those tend to corrode. just clean the contacts inside!

you'd be suprised how much moisture gets in there in the morning from just a single day of leaving the windows down on the car after night at the bar. haha

[roughpastels]

Originally posted by Proven Guilty
those tend to corrode. just clean the contacts inside!

you'd be suprised how much moisture gets in there in the morning from just a single day of leaving the windows down on the car after night at the bar. haha

hey man thanks...what should i use to clean the contacts? i'd love it if you were right...but i see 202s on the street with this problem all the time. i also did some research and found this was a problem in the late 90's for MB and there were some recalls...

[Proven Guilty]

i usually just go with windex. amonia based cleaners work great for cleaning simple stuff like that, however if you pull it apart and the metal is corroded (pitted, sometimes a white fuzzy looking residue) i usually use light sandpaper to clean the metal up enough to make a good clean contact again.

i haven't heard anything about a recall, but if worst comes to worse, i'm removing my 3rd brakelight since my new spoiler is going to have one on the deck lid, and the thing rattles like crazy with my system in the trunk anyway. i could always sell it to ya cheap!