Brake light

[Agonza5]

I have a 01 V11, parking light is working but when I apply hand brake and foot brake the brake brake light doesn’t turn on when I reversed the wires to see what would happen the brake light then comes on and stays on. I checked all my connections, fuses and relays to make sure I have power and I do, I’m not sure what to do next, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[docc]

Headlight and horn work?

[Agonza5]

Yes 

[docc]

There are a group of connectors in the tail section to check. The access panel is above the rear wheel where the fender extension bolts on.

Before going there, press the bulb hard into the socket and see if that causes it to make contact inside the holder. Also, you can put a voltmeter on each of the contacts in the tail light (one is for the brake light) and see if there is power when the lever is pressed. This is a common failure in these tail lights. You may be able to re-shape the brake light contact (pull it out some) and solve this.

[audiomick]

Bear in mind that the light circuit requires a connection back to the minus pole of the battery. I haven't studied the wiring plan von my V11 to that extent yet, but I assume that it is the same as nearly every vehicle of any type on the market, i.e from the socket back through the frame to the battery. Have a look at it, and make sure the connenctions "after the light" are also good.

 

Edit: after a quick look at the wiring plan, it looks like the tail light, brake light and number plate light share a common "earth". This might be the common mounting bracket, or it might be wiring that comes together and is connected to the frame somewhere close. As I said, have a good look at it and check that side of the circuit too.

[docc]

All of the earthing runs back to ring terminals at the battery. The wiring diagrams are non-specific about that, just showing an earthing(grounding) symbol.

This particular fail is most likely down to the bulb not contacting inside the light housing. Otherwise, a quick look at the rear connectors inside the access panel above the rear tire.

 

[Agonza5]

I used a volt meter and got 11.5 and when pushing on the brake pedal got a reading of 11.75. I checked all my connections in the tail section. Everything is connected getting power to it. I did reverse the two wires for the tail light just to see what would happen and noticed that the brake light and parking light came on and stayed on.

[docc]

The bulb is not making connection in the socket. Reach into the fixture with a bent probe and reshape the contact plate, pulling it further to the read so the bulb makes contact.

[Agonza5]

I did that, when I’m looking at the bulb I can see that the probes are making contact with the bulb and I did change out bulbs with 2 different ones just to be sure that it wasn’t the bulb. Do you think that since I got 2 different voltage readings that it should be working?

[docc]

Is one voltage the tail light side and the other the brake light side?

[Agonza5]

Yes

[LowRyter]

I hate that damn thing. 

[audiomick]

8 hours ago, Agonza5 said:

I used a volt meter and got 11.5 ...

Quite apart from the brake light working or not, that strikes me as being rather low. If your battery is healthy, it should be providing at least 12.3 or so with the motor off. So you're losing  about a volt through the wiring harness. I would be having a good look at things (cleaning connectors and so on...) to try and get that back down to some (few) tenths of a volt.

 

Or your battery is tired. If you can only see 11.5 Volt across the battery terminals directly, the battery is not charged properly, or is not holding the charge properly.

[Agonza5]

Just installed a odyssey battery and I did check the voltage on that, that reading at about 12.75

[audiomick]

10 hours ago, Agonza5 said:

... odyssey battery ...reading at about 12.75

So you're losing slightly over a Volt through the wiring. I find that too much. Quite apart from your brake light problem (or maybe in connection with it...), I would be going through the wiring harness and checking and cleaning connections all the way.