Just kinda spitballing here. This started right after I got the car inspected and took ownership. Heres the deal:

The right rear top brake light goes out on me intermittently. More to the point, the bulb warning light will come on intermittently when I step on the brake. What happens is I'll drive the car for awhile with no problems, then out of nowhere the warning light will come on with every press of the brake pedal. After awhile it will stop doing this and the right rear brake light will start working again. I believe it is the same light as the rear fog lamp (and when the rear fog lamp switch is on it works fine).

Has anyone encountered this before? My thoughts are a possible bad switch at the brake pedal, or dirty/failing contacts in the switch. reason being is my cruise control is inop (however this could be a combination of things, as I am to understand that the abs computer problem will affect the cruise as well, and my abs lights flicker on and off, just haven't gotten hands on an E-5 socket to be able to pull it and resolder everything). The other possible cause could be a failing bulb, but I cannot figure out how to get the bulb out to look. Any ideas guys?

 

 

Thanks! I'll give it a go tomorrow. The problem is getting worse, its not so intermittent anymore lol. Really hoping it is just the bulb and not wiring/switch related. Thinking it may be time to go through the car and replace all the bulbs anyway, just in case Not to mention I can throw better bulbs in (I work with a local Hella warehousing distributor, so everything is pennies compared to retail, and its all OEM)

 

both of my 850s do that. something that helped for a while was to bend the contact plate up a little and then it worked for a while on my 97

 

Mine does it too, on the left. Only one bulb, so it can't be anything except that one wire, corrosion, the socket, or the bulb itself.

 

Same exact one as me I bet. Its only the one bulb and its the left side top most bulb. And as of last night its constant from starting the car so I'm hoping it is just the bulb. Going to take a piece of fine grit sandpaper to the contacts in the socket and throw some dielectric grease in when I put it back together with a new bulb, see if that helps as well. Normally don't use dielectric grease, but couldn't hurt to try...

 

Had the same problem, filed the contact and its been fine since. Good luck.

 

Picked up a new nickel base Hella 1156 bulb today at the shop, popped it in and it seems to have fixed the problem. Oddly enough though, the old bulb looked fine, no soot on the glass and the filament was still intact... Best $.75 I've never spent

We'll see how it works in the long run, only ran 4-5 miles home with it so far. Thanks guys and gals

-Z-