Brake lights don't come on?

['69 beetle]

my brake lights don't come on when I push on the brakes. is it the brake light switches? or air in the system? thanks

[Tim]

i think it would most likely be the switch found at the end of the master cylinder, or maybe its on the side. probably the end on a 69. the wires also may have just slipped off the tabs, or need to be cleaned.

[aussiebug]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by '69 beetle:
my brake lights don't come on when I push on the brakes. is it the brake light switches? or air in the system? thanks<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

1. Do your wipers work....they use the same fuse (no2 from the left). If not is that fuse blown. If not - give it a wiggle - they sometimes get poor contact from slight corrosion on the ends.

2. Brake light switch(s). I forget if the 69 has one or two switches (68s have one, 70s have two). Remove the wires, get someone to push the brake pedal, and use a multimeter set to 1 or 10 ohm across the terminals. Open circuit (zero ohms) means no power to the lights and the switch(s) is shot.

3. two blown bulbs? (it can happen).

4. If you have air in the lines, you'd have a spongey pedal but the switches will still work.

Regards



------------------
Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repair and Maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/index.html

[SuperBeetle71]

I had the same problem before. First change the brake light switches on the master cylinder and change the brake fuses.
If this doesn't work, go for the long shot, which ended up fixing my bug; get to the fusebox from inside the trunk. Find the fuses that control the brake lights and one at a time pull off the connector and clean the male end with some light sand paper, then replace the connector,repeat for all related wires.

['69 beetle]

thanks for the replies. I'll check it out