Help! Brake light intermittently working

My passenger side brake light has developed a fault over the past couple of months.

The brake light will work, for example, when I turn the car on both lights will come on, however if I then take my foot off the brake and re-apply it, it will not work. However later when I am driving I will notice (via reflections) that it is working again!

I am aware that the bulbs cannot be replace and that I would need to replace the whole unit (after market versions available for £75 ish).

I have attempted to check the cabling and everything appears OK but I am not an expert. I just removed the rear panelling and made sure nothing was loosely connected.

More than happy to replace the unit but something doesn't seem to make sense (if the bulbs are gone how come they do work on a repeatable sequence). Not keen to take to Toyota as suspect they would just want to replace the light as first choice.

Thanks if anyone can shed any 'light' (oops sorry) on this annoying issue. MOT in JAN so keen to fix now!
Thanks!
Paul

 

Thanks Patrick - I will give this ago tonight. Want to try everything before I go to Toyota!

 

Hi Patrick

I took a look at all the cables around the light unit and generally around the boot area, and everything looked fine with no sign of corrosion or being lose. All the ground bolts seemed tight.

I did notice tonight however that the brake light is now working but very faint and flickering. I have read other threads and seen this has been resolved by replacing the light unit, so this makes me more confidence to take this approach.

My big fear is to fit a new light unit and find the problem is still there, but now I feel 75% hopeful a new unit will fix the problem.

Thanks

 

Hi Bisco - I have been able to find a replacement unit online for £65 which is very reasonable. I did look at the local breakers yard but sadly nothing..

Hi Patrick - Sadly I do not have a multimeter but I will try to pick one up. What confuses me is that the other lights on that unit work with no issue. If the brake lights are LED, I would assume they don't need much power? I would have thought if any of the lights work its most likely not a volt problem (but I could be completely wrong!). Last night my wife stood behind the car (plus I purposely parked in front of a glass window) and the lights very very faint... some of them would flicker on and off..

Thanks again for all the tips and suggestions!

 

Thanks Patrick. I just ordered a replacement light for a good price, £65 (about $98) and it will arrive on Wednesday.. I can return it if i need to.. Will let you all know. The lights do not come on AT ALL now, so i feel they just started to fail and slowly went from partial to complete failure!! Appreciate all your knowledge and willingness to share it

 

Great news! Light turned up today.. was easily able to remove the old unit and fit the new unit... new light works as new so very happy! Thanks again