2003 Infiniti QX4 - loss of brakelights after towing?

[ILLuSioNzX]

Hi All, After a 600mi. recent towing expedition, I've come home to realize that my brake lights no longer work, causing my shifter lock to not release the car from the parking gear. So far I've tried checking many fixes but nothing seems to remediate the issue, below is a list of what I've tried so far.

0. I've checked all fuses, none were blown
1. Both bulbs were blown, so I replaced the bulbs with new ones
2. I removed the trailer hitch wire harness and connected the two end of the brake light harnesses' together while completely skipping the trailer hitch wiring harness and still no brake lights, so I put the trailer hitch wiring back in since it made no difference (I'll try removing this once again now that I know there is a new brake switch in there)
3. I know my foglamps work, so I tried switching my fog light relay with the brake relay and still no luck
4. I then tried two different brake switches, one from eBay and another from Autozone, no change yet

At this point, the turn signals still work, so I'm sure it's not the wiring being melted or the trailer hitch wiring harness blocking the signal, however I have no idea what to try next. Any suggestions?

[ILLuSioNzX]

Bump 1.

[4xq]

You need to remove any trailer hitch wiring so you are troubleshooting only the vehicles wiring. Leave it out until you have fixed your problem.

Factory service manuals are here: http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/QX4/2003/EL.pdf

EL is the electrical section. At the bottom of page 80 are some manual troubleshooting steps for different problems which may or may not help.

Page 82 has the stop lamp wiring diagram, continues on 83 for the third stoplight

Your first check is to use a voltmeter at the brake light switch. With the vehicle running, check for 12 volts coming into the brake light switch on the R/B (red black) wire. If that fails, your problem is before the stop light switch.

Next check is to depress the brake, and make sure you get 12 volts on the G/Y (green yellow ) wire. If you have 12 volts, brake light switch is ok. Then you need to check for 12 volts at the G/Y connection on the tail light with the brake pedal depressed.

No voltage means you have a wiring problem - probably where ever you hooked up the trailer lighting.

Twelve volts at the taillight means something is wrong with the ground, or you blew another bulb.

You may have also toasted your third stoplight at the top of the rear window when you blew the other bulbs.

Anyway, that should get you off to a good start.

[spike753]

Where you able to release the shifter from park by using the using the override slot by the shifter?