Brake lights not working

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:49 pm

My brake lights have decided not to work, so on the basis it is unlikely that two bulbs go at once I am looking at the brake light pressure switch. Now am I correct in assuming this is of a pressure switch type near the front of the engine by the upper front shock absorber mount? ( Series 1, 62, OTS).

Or do you have any other ideas on the problem?

While I am on the ask. How do you get access to tighten up the bolts on the front split bumpers? They need nipping up?

Post by **Heuer** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:58 pm

Tony

I have had three brake light pressure switches fail on me - they are a real pain. I am sure Angus mentioned to me he had a modification to do with this.

Post by **1954Etype** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:09 pm

Heuer wrote:Tony

I have had three brake light pressure switches fail on me - they are a real pain. I am sure Angus mentioned to me he had a modification to do with this.

Oh great timing Tony! I have just fitted a mechanical switch directly onto the pedal. Very simple.

First of all, manufacture a bracket as detailed below:

(I will acknowledge the author of the post when I find the original (Jag-Lovers) in due course).

eBay item 150620390055 will do the job.

I bought some green/purple and green cable from Autosparks (I wanted the wiring to be the correct colours). On the right hand side of the car you will find a bunch of wiring loom bullet connectors. One of these joins two green and purple wires. Disconnect them and replace the single connector with a double. Run a new green and purple wire from the switch and connect into the new double connector. (Still with me?). Finally, run a green feed from behind the dash (fuse 7?) to the other terminal on the switch. Job done.

Works perfectly and the only difference you can see is a small switch near the pedal.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:20 pm

Angus, David,

Now that was good timing. Is there an inherent problem with the pressure switches on the E type or just poor repro's. As a test of the pressure switch I joined the two wires on the basis that it would make the circuit and the brake lights would come on, thus proving the switch was duff. They did not come on so I am wondering if I am missing something.

I will start making the bracket and buy some wiring. At that point I will come back to ask how exactly the bracket is positioned to or near the brake pedal.

Post by **Heuer** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:54 am

You can use the brake switch from a VW Beetle to replace the existing one. It is reliable as long as you buy a branded part.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:03 pm

David,

When you remove the old pressure switch to replace it with the VW switch, will the brakes need bleeding. or is there a valve to prevent this air getting in.

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:16 pm

Tony : there is no valve, but my experience has been that there is a very slight outflow of fluid which prevents air going in, and a bleed has not been necessary. Even it it were, all you need bleed are the two front cylinders, which is a very short job

PeterCrespin · Post by **PeterCrespin** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:13 pm

christopher storey wrote:Tony : there is no valve, but my experience has been that there is a very slight outflow of fluid which prevents air going in, and a bleed has not been necessary. Even it it were, all you need bleed are the two front cylinders, which is a very short job

Agree on likelihood of little bleeding being needed if you're quick, but on many cars the rears would be affected, not the fronts. On most (all?) 4.2s the switch sits on the front face of the left foot well where the line drops down for its rearward run.

But since Tony's lights don't come on when he connects the two stoplamp switch connectors, he has a different problem to solve first. When the lights DO come on by connecting the spades he knows everything is good except the switch. Chances are they will then work with the switch too. But right now the switch is not the (only) culprit.

I saw Angus's switch yesterday and it's very neat. With my big feet though, it is in danger of being kicked. When my own switch failed a few weeks ago (it looked 42 years old) I did the same thing but with a flat rectangular microswitch, which only projects downwards from the under side of the dash by a few millimetres and therefore avoids getting kicked.

In my case with the OTS being LHD, I had to run a couple of male-female extension wires from the stop lamp switch pigtail above the servo, in through the big left side harness grommet and under the dash to the microswitch at the pedal crank. That leaves the original wiring intact for whenever I'm working in that cramped area under the LHD hydraulic cylinders and can and can fit a new pressure switch.

Pete

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:45 pm

Chris , Peter

That's good news about the bleeding as I am tempted for now to just replace the pressure switch until I have more time in the September when I retire (yippee) to do the brake pedal mod. Now which switch pressure switch do I need to order and from where.

Peter, the lights did come on when i joined the wires, but as I did it in direct sunlight I could not see them in the shaving mirror I strategically placed.

So any offers for the best place and type and part number to buy the pressure switch from. Do I go VW or better quality Series 1 switch (if they exist as from your comments they seem to fail quite regularly).

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:15 pm

Well , I was rather disappointed tonight to say the least. My new brake light pressure arrived, so I thought this should be a straight forward job and maybe get away without re bleeding the brakes.

With a lots of cloth around the switch to cut down leaking fluid and a hose pipe at hand to wash down afterwards I unscrewed the old switch with the new one ready for a quick change over.

Would the new one go in? would it hell !!!. Doing my best not to cross thread it I eventually had to put back in the old one to assess the situation and avoid losing any more fluid. Checked the new one under a magnifying class and the thread was quite poor. After a bit of filing to tidy up the thread and several more attempts I had to give up and gave the whole area a good hosing down. I hope lots fresh water washes the fluid off properly.

The only good news is before I put the old one back in , I pushed a drill bit up the switch and gave it a number of pokes to activate the switch. When I put it back in, my lights worked and the brakes do not seem at present to need bleeding. I will have to carefully test them on the road tomorrow.

I was told that the switch was a genuine jag part so it is very annoying why it would not go in. It looked to be the same thread.

So conclusion, I am happy , but not happy.

Post by **1954Etype** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:32 pm

Tony wrote:Well , I was rather disappointed tonight to say the least. My new brake light pressure arrived, so I thought this should be a straight forward job and maybe get away without re bleeding the brakes.

With a lots of cloth around the switch to cut down leaking fluid and a hose pipe at hand to wash down afterwards I unscrewed the old switch with the new one ready for a quick change over.

Would the new one go in? would it hell !!!. Doing my best not to cross thread it I eventually had to put back in the old one to assess the situation and avoid losing any more fluid. Checked the new one under a magnifying class and the thread was quite poor. After a bit of filing to tidy up the thread and several more attempts I had to give up and gave the whole area a good hosing down. I hope lots fresh water washes the fluid off properly.

The only good news is before I put the old one back in , I pushed a drill bit up the switch and gave it a number of pokes to activate the switch. When I put it back in, my lights worked and the brakes do not seem at present to need bleeding. I will have to carefully test them on the road tomorrow.

I was told that the switch was a genuine jag part so it is very annoying why it would not go in. It looked to be the same thread.

So conclusion, I am happy , but not happy.

Should have gone for the mechanical one Tony ;). IIRC, Barry used Silicone Fluid on your braking system so it won't damage the paintwork. If you are topping up, you must use Silicone.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:31 pm

Finally managed to get the brake lights working again. Apparently I have been supplied with the wrong party. They sent a 3/8 UNF instead of a 1/8th BSP tapered. Not sure if I have quoted the right threads, but anyway it is in and working fine.

I went to my local motor factors and was surprised when they bought up the E type and the parts I required firsts time. Now why could the E type specialist do this rather then send me the wrong one.

Not to worry it is working and I cannot be bothered posting the wrong part back to the E type specialists

geof · Post by **geof** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:35 pm

I replaced a faulty (so I thought) brake light switch three times until it dawned on me that it operates on fluid pressure - and an air-filled switch won't work. So I removed it once more, filled it with brake fluid, and replaced it. Then hosed down the whole area! No problems since then.

Post by **Heuer** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:07 am

I was up with SNG last week and was talking to Pete, their technical guru, and he explained they have found two types of brake light switch construction - one with silver contacts, the other with copper. Only the former is reliable and they are working on getting the duds out of their system. I gave up (after 6 switches in 13 years) and installed a pedal operated switch. No more worries!

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