tizzle Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Having an issue with my 88 RX. Stop Lamp light is on, and I noticed that when I turn the lights on, the tail lights do not light up. Brake and turns light up just fine. All rear bulbs and sockets seem fine. Fuses look good. The little coil checker thing on the passenger tail had some corrosion on it, so I cleaned it up. Not super good with electrical diagnostics, so any help would be great I recently did a 5 lug conversion, so braking system has been changed, and also had the dash apart for a heater core, but if I remember correct the "stop lamp" light was on before -Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Stop Lamp light should not be "ON" if both of the brake lights are working. It's there to let you know that one side 'isn't working". Has nothing to do with tail lights or turnsignal lights. Your mention of corrosion is most likely the issue. I would look at all of the connections for the rear wiring, checking for corrosion, broken wires, or bad ground point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bantum Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 (edited) Another check would be to see if the brake globe has the correct rating, as a inappropriate one can trip the sensor ... Refer to the manual for correct rating ... Edited March 14, 2013 by Bantum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tizzle Posted March 14, 2013 Author Share Posted March 14, 2013 ok,could be improperly rated bulb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdweninger Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 ok. I've had my illuminated "STOP LAMP" on for over a year. All brake lights work. Sockets cleaned. Wires good. I've checked the connections on that 'thing' inside the rear quarter panel. It looks good. So tell me... what is this "improperly rated bulb" all about. What's the rating? Currently, black electrical tape covers the illumination of the "STOP LAMP". Nice fix... eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bantum Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 (edited) Subaru engineers designed the cuircuit to maintain a certian amp / current draw rate, ( the dash light reflects this ) so if it goes above or below it will come on, usually to indicate a stop globe is not working ... Note : There is a 'can' somewhere that plugs into the brake line & moniters the system ... Hence it turning on the dash light if you go & put in a differently rated one ... Depending on what model year you have, the brake globes range from 18 to 23 Watts. You'll need to check what it say's in the manual as to what it should be ... Note : It could also be just a faulty globe, just have to find the sucker ... Cheers, Bantum ... Add : It seems to be a common problem ... Stop Lamp Troubleshooting , stop lamp light issues , stop lamp light is on !!! , Brake light ? , Where is the Stop Light Checker located ??? , Subaru leone ea82 87' wagon Stop lamp dash indicator help plzzzz ! & dash lights and headlights come on when i press the brake pedal ... Edited March 15, 2013 by Bantum 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tizzle Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 Thanks, I looked through a bunch of those threads. I guess my real concern is why do the tail lights not come on. I re-checked a bunch of connections and grounds, swapped some bulbs, no change going to look through some threads about tail lights... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 If I had to make a WAG, it would be a bad ground. It would seem to me to be fairly easy to test for power at the tail light bulb, and not so much harder to test for ground. If you are not getting power, ignore the "STOP LAMP" issue and find out why. If the ground is bad, found by either testing resistance to ground, or simply making a temporary ground, you can also ignore the "STOP LAMP" issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l75eya Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Subaru engineers designed the cuircuit to maintain a certian amp / current draw rate, ( the dash light reflects this ) so if it goes above or below it will come on, usually to indicate a stop globe is not working ... Note : There is a 'can' somewhere that plugs into the brake line & moniters the system ... Hence it turning on the dash light if you go & put in a differently rated one ... Depending on what model year you have, the brake globes range from 18 to 23 Watts. You'll need to check what it say's in the manual as to what it should be ... Note : It could also be just a faulty globe, just have to find the sucker ... Cheers, Bantum ... Add : It seems to be a common problem ... Stop Lamp Troubleshooting , stop lamp light issues , stop lamp light is on !!! , Brake light ? , Where is the Stop Light Checker located ??? , Subaru leone ea82 87' wagon Stop lamp dash indicator help plzzzz ! & dash lights and headlights come on when i press the brake pedal ... Is there a way to vote this for most helpful post of the year? lol! It was nice of you to take the time to search down all those threads and link them here. That was above and beyond, just wanted to give that some recognition. And this thread has been helpful too, by the way. My car was down for awhile and my brother stole one of my brake lights for his impreza. After I got the car up again I replaced the bulb and since then, EVERY time I hit my brake pedal the stop/brake light indicator flashes on the instrument panel for like a SPLIT second. It's pretty annoying. Never knew this about the ratted wattages, I will have to check that out and see if the proper bulb cures it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88wacaroo Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Tizzle,do you have a trailer hitch? Or if not do you have the Electric Box For the Trailer Lights on the car still?I had the box go bad and it made my lights do stupid crap-I took it off and everything was fine...The U-Haul 1s seem to be bad-I"ve come across 4 bad 1s on other cars too! Or your combo switch is going bad {Light Switch} I"ve seen that too...Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tizzle Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 No Trailer hitch. I just bought a multimeter today, so I guess I am going to have to buck up and finally figure out how to use one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88wacaroo Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 No Trailer hitch. I just bought a multimeter today, so I guess I am going to have to buck up and finally figure out how to use one I"d check the combo switch-light switch...those are known to go bad and make the lights do stupid stuff...If you have a spare plug it in....I think they"re $10.-15.at the PnP if you don"t Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Good decision on getting a meter. You will soon find you have purchased a great test tool. I assume you purchased a digital meter and you will most likely find it is easy to use and also learn various ways to test things using it. Most of the time you just need to use the voltmeter function to help you solve circuit issues. If the instuctions that came with the meter are a little vague on how to use it I'm sure you could find a lot of info on places like YouTube that will show you how to work with it. As far the running lights go, see if they work with the switch on top of the column. Power for those lights usually passes through that switch whether the switch is ON or OFF. Turning the switch ON bypasses a relay and provides an alternate path to power to the lights rather than through the normal light switch. I assume you have already checked the dash fuses for a problem there. You can also use your new meter to verify that the fuses are ok by placing the red probe on top of each side of the fuse using the small slits on each side. You should have 12 volts on each side of the fuse if it is good and power is getting to the fuse. Most of the fuses in the dash need to have the ignition switch turned ON to provide them power. The running lights are tied to continuous power so the ignition switch is bypassed in this case. Now that you have a meter you won't have to guess if something isn't working correctly. Now you can prove what is happening, be it good or bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83pickle Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I had somewhat of the same issue. Something caused the plastic housing to melt and the contacts sunk down too far. No one had replacement sockets so I just added some solder to the contact to raise them up out of the plastic and haven't had a problem since. I only bring that up due to everyone mentioning wattage. That could have been my issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.