Hey guys, so the other day I wired in an inclinometer out of a SR5 4Runner into my 88 GL Wagon. All that I did while wiring this in was I unplugged the clock since it no longer worked, plugged in the cigarette lighter because it was unplugged for some reason, and used two scotch locks on the ground wire and live wire that goes to the cigarette lighter light to get power to the inclinometer. The next morning I realized that my brake lights don't come on when I depress the brake. All other lights in the car work. I checked the fuse that's marked Stop, ECC, and whatever the other thing is. The fuse was good and even tried a new one, made no difference. I haven't checked the switch on the pedal but I assume that's not the issue because it hasn't worked since I wired the meter in. Any ideas? I wouldn't think there'd be any correlation between the cigarette lighter light and the brake lights.

***How positive are you the problem wasn't existing before you worked on it?

Could they have been non-operational before hand and you simply didn't notice until you did the work/became more perceptive?

 

if the hazard lights share anything with the clock wiring - maybe the rear blinkers/assemblies/brake lights were affected? 

 

 

fuses, switch, and the wiring in the hatch are usually the culprit.  but obviously if you worked on it and they quit working immediately aftewards - the work had to be the cause.

Can you post some pics if the this, would love to see what it looks like:)

Buy a test light and test it at the battery.

Clean/inspect body grounds

Check fusible links.

Check both sides of fuse box for 12v at the brake circuit.

Inspect/Clean and Check bulb sockets with test light with friend applying brakes.

I'm not too positive if they were working before or not, I don't remember the last time I noticed them working so yeah it definitely could've happened before. I'll try to get some pics up later! But I'll try all that you guys have suggested here soon, thank you for the input. (:

check the bulbs first!