2000 Mazda Protege: No brake lights!! Why?

Was stopped by a woman today who told me that my brake
lights were not working. There are three of them and
NONE are working!

I cant imagine all three bulbs going out at same time
so checked for any blown fuses but they looked OK to
me.

So.... it has to be a relay or maybe switch in the
brake pedal, right?

Do brake light systems use relays or work direct from
switch in pedal?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
> Was stopped by a woman today who told me that my brake
> lights were not working. There are three of them and
> NONE are working!
>
> I cant imagine all three bulbs going out at same time
> so checked for any blown fuses but they looked OK to
> me.
>
> So.... it has to be a relay or maybe switch in the
> brake pedal, right?
>
> Do brake light systems use relays or work direct from
> switch in pedal?

Before you start looking at the electronics, you should buy a pack of
taillight bulbs and see if both main brake light filaments did actually
both blow out at once. Worse come to worst, you'll have only spent
$2.75, and you can stick the bulbs in a drawer, and someday you'll blow
out a bulb and you'll already have the replacement at hand.

For one thing, you could have had two of the three bulbs blown out for
weeks but you never noticed. It's easy to miss a burned-out tail
light. For another, I've had both tail lights blow out "at the same
time" (again, I noticed them both out at the same time, which doesn't
mean that I wasn't driving around with only one tail light for a while)
and I have also had both head lights go out the same night. I
definitely noticed that when it happened, and I thought it had to be a
bad switch or relay or fuse, but no, it was two sealed beams that let go
within minutes of each other.

yrs jp

"johnny p." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I
>definitely noticed that when it happened, and I thought it had to be a
>bad switch or relay or fuse, but no, it was two sealed beams that let go
>within minutes of each other.

Good point and thanks so much!!

I will replace all the bulbs in both rear lamps and
work from there.

However, if that doesn't fix it..... can you tell me if
there is a RELAY that controls those lights from the
brake switch? I've looked for a relay but yet to find
one. Is it possible the lights are controlled direct
from brake switch?

Also, what abt the feasibility and cost of replacing
the bulbs with LED version? Not cost effective yet?

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
> However, if that doesn't fix it..... can you tell me if
> there is a RELAY that controls those lights from the
> brake switch? I've looked for a relay but yet to find
> one. Is it possible the lights are controlled direct
> from brake switch?

I can't tell you about a 2000 Protege, but according to the '99 Miata
Workshop Manual there is no brake light relay on one of those, just a
brake light switch mounted at the top of the brake pedal lever. And
when I looked in Google for "2000 protege brake light switch" I got a
zillion matches where you could buy one (they're cheap too) but for
"2000 protege brake light relay" I got nothing but noise, so I'll bet
there isn't one on your car either. However, another semi-random Google
match I did see said that Protege brake lights are all on one fuse, so
if you can find a map of the fuses in your car that's the first and
easiest thing to check. Good luck!

> Also, what abt the feasibility and cost of replacing
> the bulbs with LED version? Not cost effective yet?

I don't like the way LED tail lights look, the soft bell-shaped shade of
an incandescent bulb through a traditional red lens is far easier on my
eye, but as brake lights LEDs are technically superior because their
response time is practically zero as compared to a quarter-second for a
classic Edison-style filament. When it comes to informing the moron
tailgating you in his SUV that he's about to get his insurance rate
raised after he runs you over if he doesn't pile on the brakes RIGHT
NOW, every decisecond counts. How much is that worth to you?

yrs jp

i would first identify other things that may not be working such as the
running lights, directionals (fast blinking is an indicator of a problem),
interior lights, etc.
i don't know the protege, but the miata has one fuse box under the dash by
the drivers left knee and another under the hood.
i recently lost all of my tail lights and checked the interior fuses with no
joy, then found the main relay in the engine compartment fuse box had jumped
out of its socket.
if it is of any value, you can download the 2002 protege workshop manual for
free from here...
http://pdftown.com/PDF-Mazda-Protege...op-Manual.html
but it is in rar format so you have to have a rar utility (free) to
reassemble it, and it is on rapid share, so you have to download each of the
three parts about an hour apart (unless you are a paying rapidshare
customer)...

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Was stopped by a woman today who told me that my brake
> lights were not working. There are three of them and
> NONE are working!
>
> I cant imagine all three bulbs going out at same time
> so checked for any blown fuses but they looked OK to
> me.
>
> So.... it has to be a relay or maybe switch in the
> brake pedal, right?
>
> Do brake light systems use relays or work direct from
> switch in pedal?

that 2002 workshop manual has excellent step by step troubleshooting and
repair procedure starting on page 01-02c. it appears that the lights can
fail if there is a problem with the cruise control module. is your cruise
control working?

"Christopher Muto" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsZOdndHlUtYEb-(E-Mail Removed)...
>i would first identify other things that may not be working such as the
>running lights, directionals (fast blinking is an indicator of a problem),
>interior lights, etc.
> i don't know the protege, but the miata has one fuse box under the dash by
> the drivers left knee and another under the hood.
> i recently lost all of my tail lights and checked the interior fuses with
> no joy, then found the main relay in the engine compartment fuse box had
> jumped out of its socket.
> if it is of any value, you can download the 2002 protege workshop manual
> for free from here...
> http://pdftown.com/PDF-Mazda-Protege...op-Manual.html
> but it is in rar format so you have to have a rar utility (free) to
> reassemble it, and it is on rapid share, so you have to download each of
> the three parts about an hour apart (unless you are a paying rapidshare
> customer)...
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Was stopped by a woman today who told me that my brake
>> lights were not working. There are three of them and
>> NONE are working!
>>
>> I cant imagine all three bulbs going out at same time
>> so checked for any blown fuses but they looked OK to
>> me.
>>
>> So.... it has to be a relay or maybe switch in the
>> brake pedal, right?
>>
>> Do brake light systems use relays or work direct from
>> switch in pedal?
>
>

"Christopher Muto" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>it appears that the lights can
>fail if there is a problem with the cruise control module. is your cruise
>control working?

No.....as a matter of fact my cruise control does NOT
work and quit working several months ago!

I can hear the relay click when turning it on but it
wont allow me to setup any speed. I just assumed it
was a blown fuse and would replace it when weather
warmer!

How in the heck are the cruise control module and brake
lights tied together so as to make the brake lights to
all fail??!!

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> "Christopher Muto" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>it appears that the lights can
>>fail if there is a problem with the cruise control module. is
>>your cruise control working?
>
> No.....as a matter of fact my cruise control does NOT
> work and quit working several months ago!
>
> I can hear the relay click when turning it on but it
> wont allow me to setup any speed. I just assumed it
> was a blown fuse and would replace it when weather
> warmer!
>
> How in the heck are the cruise control module and brake
> lights tied together so as to make the brake lights to
> all fail??!!

Don't know but Mazdas are like that. Now start checking fuses, look
for any blown fuse. It'll probably be labeled as something
completely unrelated to either the stop lights or the cruise
control, BTDT!

I don't recall exactly what problem I had but I checked every fuse
that could in any way be related to the failure and finally gave up
(Checking Miata fuses is easy only for people less than 10" tall!)
and took the car to Mike's Place: http://www.mikes-place.biz/

I would have ended up there anyway, Mike is the only one who has ever
been able to put my fuse box cover back on.. <sigh>

He knew exactly what fuse it was but the label was for something
very different... :-(




--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://improve-usenet.org

In article <Xns9C5B76F8EFE4xs11eyahoocom@127.0.0.1>,
XS11E <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
> > "Christopher Muto" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> >
> >>it appears that the lights can
> >>fail if there is a problem with the cruise control module. is
> >>your cruise control working?
> >
> > No.....as a matter of fact my cruise control does NOT
> > work and quit working several months ago!
> >

Since the cruise isn't working, I would go straight to the stoplight
switch on the brake pedal. Mazdas with cruise have a combo switch that
is both for disengaging the cruise and actuating the brakelights. It
should be located about halfway up the brake pedal arm. When you are
replacing/adjusting, please note that the plunger on that switch must be
fully compressed (when nothing is pushing on the pedal) in order for the
cruise to work at all.

--Geary

Geary Morton <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Since the cruise isn't working, I would go straight to the stoplight
>switch on the brake pedal. Mazdas with cruise have a combo switch that
>is both for disengaging the cruise and actuating the brakelights.

OK thanks will do!

However, since the car is 9 yrs old and have never
changed any taillights I'm going ahead and change ALL
lights front and back since it is summer and easier to
do now.

Knowing my luck even if I get the brake switch fixed, a
bulb will burn out say in dead of winter and much more
unpleasant to change then as I have no garage.

Also, one of the bulbs had odd ball socket "tabs" on it
that were NOT 180 degrees apart but instead more like
120 degrees apart! So had to have Oreillys special
order them . <sigh>