Mystery brake light problem
 

2005 Jetta. Have this problem with the brake lights all of a sudden. One brake light would be out one day then another day the it would work and the other light would be out. Then another day they both work. Changed all the brake lights already. What the heck is going on? Thanks for the help.

First problem is it's a VW ;) anyways, is it raining outside or are the streets wet when you are driving? It sounds like you have a loose connection somewere and the leads are intermittenly making contact.

No.........dry as a bone outside and it still acts up. Brake pedal switch maybe? Other than that, I don't even know where to start.

Could maby be a bad ground wire.

no it's none of that, had the same problem with the blazer. Your main power wire that connects from the fuse in the engince compartment goes straight to the pedal switch, now if you have a volt tester light, try seeing if theres current in the pedal switch from the wire from the fuse box....if there isn't....test the fuse that corresponds with the switch wire and see if it has power going to it, if it does you have a bad connection to pedal switch.

Now if you have no power to both than you have a problem in the fuse box.

Is it easier to do this from inside the engine compartment or underneath the dash. Is the wire clearly visible? Thanks.

i had the same issue with an older Vdub a few years ago.

check all of the connections @ the TL themselves. that's what turned out to be my issue.

i did the same thing as you, replaced every bulb, which worked for the rest of the day (or 'til i noticed they had stopped working again).

Looks like it turned out to be the bulb connectors. The metal clips inside the connectors needed to be bent up. At least so far so good since I did it! Thanks for the input.