brake lights?

[Recian]

So today doing my alignment I noticed that only my 3rd brake light works. When I did the alignment 2 months ago they were all working and I typically back into my parking spot so last time I backed in at night was bout 2 weeks ago and they were all lit up then. yes i know.. 2 alignments in 2 months but I've been having alignment issues between bent tie rods, rusted rear toe adjusters and such I've been putting one part at a time and aligning it when i can. But I pulled bulbs and such and threw some new ones in that I had in the tool box so i know that's not the issue. I looked through my ESM and it shows on EL-57 that this model uses a "Brake lamp sensor" basically a brake light switch with multiple outputs.. kinda stupid imo but that's what i've got. The car has had body work done in the RR quarter and under the lights but all 3 lights share a ground so I'm unsure that's the culprit. It's been raining here and should be all weekend so I wanted to just brainstorm and pick you guys' brains for ideas til i can get into it to do some signal tracing. I'm thinking the switch is bad, not putting out to the L and R brake lamps.

[Metacom]

Z32s require Nissan OEM bulbs or some resistor trick to prevent the brake light switch from lighting up, although the bulbs themselves will work if the red light on the gauge doesn't bother you. The Nissan OEM one have some weird resistance on them.

Brake light switch does cause the problem you're having. Have you tried wiggling the harness around to the brake light switch to see if the lights cut in and out? There are weak soldered connections in it that like to break. Mine goes in and out all the damn time.

[Recian]

Not yet. I'll probably play with it this afternoon. It's funny most older nissans tend to stay on when the rubber stopper falls out more so than having this issue. Strange thing about my FSM is that it only shows a high mount brake light on RHD models which use a different brake light switch.

[t.mcginley.jr]

Your brake light sensor/control module is probably shot, it happens with age. It clips on to the rear drivers side brake light (or pass. side on RHD? not sure..) on the inside. I forget if you have to remove some of the interior hatch trim or not to get to it, but you can't miss it. It looks like this:



They are like $70-75 new, but you can pick up a used one for like $15 or so. Check the Classifieds section on here or on tt.net, or the 3 Facebook parts groups for one.

[Recian]

Knowing what to look for I went to find it. The module was wrapped in duct tape and stuck to the inner quarter just below the tail lights. So yeah it's seen better days. I ordered on from Nissan for $75 and had it the next day. Works perfectly now. Thanks for the direction guys also i wiggled brake light harness just to make sure that doesn't give me any problems. Seems like the switch is ok for now.