Yeah! I asked a dealer back in Florida about two years ago (been living with this for awhile) on how much it cost to fix it. I figured MAYBE 100 bucks. No! They wanted almost 900$ to troubleshoot it and replace the part! Needless to say I was very surprised, told the man politely he was a crook, and lived with it until I took it apart last week. Its a 35$ part on most websites. Ridiculous!

 

i followed all of this info it looked to me like there is no relay just fuses check the under hood box real good my was a blown fuse in the box under hood the fuse is located right by the spare fuses i overlooked it several times before i saw it it is labeled (vchmsl)

 

Hey guys this thread was extremely helpful. I disassmbled my 3rd brake light and found the blown resistor. Is there a way I can get just the led bar or am i going to have to get an entire new light with the housing and everything ? Thank you very much

 

I looked all over the internet for it awhile back, and didn't find one. The whole assembly isn't that expensive though. I think I picked mine up at rockauto.com. If you really want to be the thrifty type you can figure out what type of resister is required and buy one at radio shack and resolder it back in yourself.

 

Thats a good idea ill definitely try that before I spend 50$ on a new light any clue as to where to start with the resistors ? lol

 

No idea. I know you can buy them at radio shack, but as far as what the LED bar requires I have no clue. =P

 

Thanks for the info! Thats exactly what was wrong with mine. But mine also had a short in the wires at the grommet. So I had to replace the wires, and heat shrink, and swapped the grommet over. Works perfect now!

BTW, that burnt out component. Is not a resistor. Its a Line Fuse. Usually found on most circuit boards. Labeld as LF or FB. They look like a diode, without the white stripe around it. I just pulled one from an old DVD player circuit board, transplanted it over.

 

My brakelight had the same problem, I soldered a diode between en works fine now!

 

Actually, if you look at the underside of that circuit board, there is a schematic symbol for a diode (sideways triangle with a bar at the point). The symbol for an LED is the same as for a diode (for the determination of polarity) because an LED is actually a Light Emitting Diode. That burnt out component is most likely a 1N4001 or equivalent, which is a 1 Amp diode. The purpose (in this circuit, anyway) is likley for polarity protection so that the LEDs don't blow if for some reason the polarity were to be reversed. Since there is a fuse at the fusebox for this stop lamp circuit, I don't think that component would be a fuse. You can pick up a 1N4001 at Radio Shack or from Digikey online (see my link below). Also, the LEDs seem to be standard (except for the fact that the lens is clear), in that they are a T1-3/4 (also known as 5mm). They all normally have a Forward Voltage Drop of about 1.6 - 1.7 volts. The clear lens red LEDs are NOT available from Radio Shack, even online. I've pasted a link below for obtaining them from Digikey.

If you are checking the light bar and notice that any of them are dim, then you probably need to replace them, as they are going to fail before long anyway. The LEDs are arranged in an array of 5 rows of 6 LEDs per row, with two rows of 6 resistors as well. The purpose for this design is so that if any one LED or resistor blows, then the rest of the bar will function. Because of how this circuit is designed, if the first 6 LEDs all go, then the rest of the light bar will not function.

Here's the Diode: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...=641-1310-1-ND

Here's the red LED with a clear lens (you can use a standard 5mm/T1-3/4 LED with a red diffused lens, however the apperance when illuminated will be different and slightly dim compared to the clear lens). The LEDs in the link below are $0.67 each, $0.50 each in quantities of 10, plus shipping (priority mail for 1 pound or less is $5.34 in the continental US).

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...me=516-1338-ND

So, for under $15, you can more than likely have all the parts you need to fix your stop lamp! Even if every single LED and the diode needed replacing, you could get all of those components for under $25, including taxes and shipping. Considering that the best price I could find online for a new one is $46 plus shipping, that's not too shabby.

Feel free to post here or PM me if you have any questions. I can upload a schematic diagram if you're terribly interested, but as long as you have the right parts, you really don't need it. Note the polarity of the LEDs and the diode. The LEDs have a flat side - that is the cathode, which is also usually denoted by a shorter lead. The diode cathode is generally denoted by the silver bar on one end of the diode. If you click on the link for the diode above, you'll see what I'm talking about. Here is are the schematic symbols for a diode and LED, denoting the anode & cathode.

http://www.sciencelobby.com/diodes/i...ode-symbol.gif

Hope you find this helpful!

Jonboy