February 21, 201412 yr Hey, im new to this forum and the Subaru world. I recently bought a 1985 Subaru Brat and been working on it here and there. I recently replaced all the dash lights and every interior lights to LED's. It gave me no trouble and works perfectly. But recently, now whenever I apply the brake all the exterior park lights, dash lights, and lights that light up the heater come on. When this first happened I noticed the left hand corner light bulb burned out. I replaced it and fixed the problem. After a few days now the problem is back. And none of the light bulbs are burned out. Was wondering if anyone knew of this issue or could supply a electrical diagram to see if somehow its getting shorted to voltage anywhere. I appreciate you taking the time and reading this.
February 21, 201412 yr one brake light filament fallen off its post and made contact with the park/tail light/dash circuit ?? Check the bulbs for brake and tail circuits working correctly ? Got a tow hook up cable for a trailer with water or mud in it ?
February 21, 201412 yr I`d be checking the tailight ground. Brake light bulbs for shorts to the talight circuit too.
February 21, 201412 yr 1157 in a 1156 hole ? +1 single filament bulb in a 2 filament socket bridges the circuits
February 21, 201412 yr Author Thank you for your responses, I wasn't sure if this was a safety feature or something simple. I'll be checking bulbs and cleaning grounds and check wires out. I'll probably just replace all the exterior lights while I'm at it, there all pretty dim but seem to work as they should. I'll update with any new news. Thanks again.
February 21, 201412 yr As the others have already stated, the trouble is most likely due to one of the rear dual filament bulbs. One of the two filaments inside the bulb can stretch and come into contact with the other one. I think the running light filament is the culprit normally. When the two bridge together then the voltage for the brake lights passes on to the running light circuit which back feeds to the interior lights. As "jono" also correctly pointed out this kind of thing can happen to the trailer wire harness connections if corrosion gets to the connections. Using the wrong bulb was mentioned by others and that will do it also. I assume things worked okay after you replaced the bulb and then had trouble later on so the correct bulb seems to have been installed.
February 22, 201412 yr old subarus do not like leds mess with the stop lamp indicator check box thingy
February 26, 201412 yr Author **UPDATE** Sorry it took so long to update but i just found and fixed the problem. I checked all the bulbs and they were good so I checked the trailer wiring (not trusting the previous owners job) and that was the problem. They did a number on it screwed it up. For some reason they cut both wires from the left side license plate buld, twisted them together and twisted the ground and brake wire to both of those. I took the rest of the trailer wiring off (I use a different setup and connecter anyways) and it works beautifully. Thank you all for the help. I appreciate it greatly. I'll upload pictures of the brat and what they did to the wiring soon. Thank you all again!
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