No Brake Lights!

[vfxbox]

No Brake Lights!

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I was driving saturday morning and guy next to me as he pull over told me I have no brake lights. What the hell? "Thanks Buddy." Luckly I haven't pulled over by any cop yet, but now I am worry if I am on the freeway what if guy behind me can't see me slowing down? Yeah, no good.. I checked fuse (b-roll, 7)and light bulbs and they are all good.. Any idea? I found article here relate to 996 section and talking about Brake Pedal Switch might need to be replace. If that is same case here, how

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• Author
  vfxbox
• Category
  Boxster (986) - Common Fixes and Repairs
• Submitted
  07/10/2005 12:29 PM

 

[ar38070]

Look above the brake pedal. If I remember correctly it locks in with a 90 degree twist.

[vfxbox]

Okay, I took pictures of right above brake pedal and I can only assume that little yellow thing is where as you've describe as 90 degree and twist?

here are some of photos (4). let me know if I am looking at wrong item.

Look above the brake pedal.  If I remember correctly it locks in with a 90 degree twist.

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Edited July 11, 2005 by vfxbox

[trygve]

That's indeed the part. It's brown plastic on one end and black on the other. Twist 90 degrees and then you can pull it out. It's kind of a pain to get to with your hands because there's so little space. If I remember correctly, I think you can temporarily move or remove that black plastic part with the swiss cheese holes in it. When my brake contact switch went bad, it turned out that the inside was gummed up with grease and dirt, making the electrical contacts not work. My brake lights would just give one faint momentary flicker when I braked.

[vfxbox]

Oh great.. can I do it my self?, I drop off my car to my local Torrance Porsche dealer and they want to charge me $220 for parts and installation.. WHAT!!!! :angry:

it's simple switch install and $220 for it? Forget it. I will do it my self.

My faith to local dealer is down to trashcan. :soapbox:

Edited July 12, 2005 by vfxbox

[vfxbox]

Cool. thanks. that did work just fine.. twist 90 degrees and pull it out.. cleaned it and work like charm. :drive:

Thanks again.. and no thanks to dealer.. ripp off. :soapbox: total time of repair... 25 min.. compare to 4 hour estimated by dealer.. hell no. :clapping:

That's indeed the part. It's brown plastic on one end and black on the other. Twist 90 degrees and then you can pull it out. It's kind of a pain to get to with your hands because there's so little space. If I remember correctly, I think you can temporarily move or remove that black plastic part with the swiss cheese holes in it. When my brake contact switch went bad, it turned out that the inside was gummed up with grease and dirt, making the electrical contacts not work. My brake lights would just give one faint momentary flicker when I braked.

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Edited July 13, 2005 by vfxbox

[zeeta99]

:cheers: Thanks saved me £120 just be careful that you realign the internal spring correctly and the male copper contacts are inside the female when putting the switch unit back together. It really is as easy as they say, my first bit of boxster maintenance am a convert to the forum.

[tenaciousdave]

Hi, I'm having a similar problem at the moment. I've located the switch and twisted it to remove it, but how to I take it out to clean it? Is there a clip or does it just pull apart from the wires? Its seems pretty solid and theres so little room I just dont want to completly mess it up and be forced to go to a dealer

[GregD]

Hi, I'm having a similar problem at the moment. I've located the switch and twisted it to remove it, but how to I take it out to clean it? Is there a clip or does it just pull apart from the wires? Its seems pretty solid and theres so little room I just dont want to completly mess it up and be forced to go to a dealer

Once rotated 90 degrees, the switch (attached to the socket and wires) should come clean out of the metal bracket in front of the pedals.

Once you have it out, you should be able to separate the switch from the socket with wires - there are 2 tabs either side of the socket (see photo - these are on the left and right of the socket as you see it).

To clean the inside of the switch, you just need to use a small screwdriver to pry apart the brown and black plastic parts of the switch (or red and black if it's the clutch switch). Be careful as the switch contains a loose spring which is liable to fall out at this point.

Greg

[mikecurry]

Hi,

I have the same problem - but have taken the brake switch out - it all looks fine - but given it a clean anyway - but still the brake lights dont work, fuse and bulbs ok - does anyone have any other ideas what it could be?

Thanks,

Mike

[blackrocket145]

That's indeed the part. It's brown plastic on one end and black on the other. Twist 90 degrees and then you can pull it out. It's kind of a pain to get to with your hands because there's so little space. If I remember correctly, I think you can temporarily move or remove that black plastic part with the swiss cheese holes in it. When my brake contact switch went bad, it turned out that the inside was gummed up with grease and dirt, making the electrical contacts not work. My brake lights would just give one faint momentary flicker when I braked.

I am only a member for a couple of hours and this forum has already saved me a couple hundred dollars. I did exactly what was posted here and now my brakes lights work just fine. Thank you and keep up the good work.

:renntech:

[scrowner]

Very nice thread. It is funny that other forums redirect you to renntech for How-To instructions.

I replaced my rear bumper and in the process change my rear tail lights to OE smoked tail lights, made very professionally by a guy on EBay. I have a black 2000 Boxster S, and the smoked tail lights in the rear look spectacular on the car - IMO much better than the OE tail lights. So I worked the day installing everything and my last step was to test all the bulbs in the tail lights. So, I get my wife's help to watch as I cycle through all the lights in the tail and the brake lights did NOT work, not even the brake light bar above the trunk lid. Odd, because they were all working fine prior to the replacement.

1. I unsnapped the black bulb holder on each of the tail lights, (I write this as I have read people indicating to remove the whole tail light housing which you do not need to do), and removed to inspect the bulbs. Looked fine.

2. I removed the fuse holder cover, down by the floor on the driver side, by putting a finger in the hole at the top of the cover and removing the cover by pulling away. After much internet searching, my car brake light fuse is B7. It is hard to see the labeling on the fuse housing but it is there. I ohmed out the fuse and it was fine. The fuse holder in the Boxster has a plastic fuse puller that can be used to easily remove any fuse. The bottom row of the fuse box has spare fuses of various AMP sizes and if you are lucky you can use one of those. If you do not have a voltmeter to check fuse resistance, visually you can inspect this fuse as it is 15A and it should be obviously blackened if blown.

3. HUH? I should not be at step three as everything was working fine. I did an internet search and found this cool little thread. And cleaned the switch and VOILA - brakes back working. Very odd that the built up gunk on the switch failed after replacing the rear bumper and tail lights. A couple more hints on the switch cleaning process:

a. You can remove the contacts in the bottom part of the switch housing by pushing them out. I recommend doing these one at a time so to have them back in place as before.

b. How do you clean? I use cue tips and rubbing alcohol to clean the dark gunk off. Then I use a little sand paper to make the contacts shinny. If you do not have any sand paper use one of your wife emery boards. You sand lightly till you see a brightness reform.

c. Before removing the brown bottom mark the switch so to put it back together correctly.

d. For testing, just leave the switch dangling in the car but connected to the power. Turn the car ignition on to activate the lights. You do not need to start the car. With the switch dangling, the brake lights will be on to easily check.

e. Quarter turn of the switch is really quarter turn in either direction. If you apply pressure to the front of the car while turning the switch will turn in the metal bracket.

Thanks, renntech!

[DaEagle]

Just did this myself... saved a bit of money so thankyou! Just one thing to add. It seems that the switch may have some sort of auto ajustment feature. When I pulled mine out and tested it by hand, it seems I pushed it in too far. When I installed it after cleaning, it wasns't working as expected. I pulled it apart again and found where the black button joins the contacts, it can be pushed out (ie, reverse operation of the switch). I did this which gave the switch more travel, reinstalled the part and it worked perfectly.

Thanks again!

[maswurm]

great help to a certain point, I put in the new part and when I turn the ignition on, all brake lights turn on but do not turn off, When I tested the brake switch while it was dangling, nothing happened, help