Brake Lights stopped working - help! E36

It happen to me just last week. Brake pedal switch.

jim snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 8 May 2006 19:30:31 -0700:

In addition to the brake pedal switch suggestion, you might also want to check the wiring loom. My 93 E36 recently lost the brake lights. Then a day later the license plate lights. Then then the fog lights. Then I lost power to the windows and central locking, and finally the alarm. Discovered that all the wires were breaking and shorting in the part of the loom that is exposed at the side of the boot/trunk - years of opening and closing had caused them to split.

Dan

This happened to me about a year ago (1997 E36 318i). There is an easy test for this condition before you go to the dealer or start tearing it down yourself. Find a nice empty chuck of freeway and set the cruise control, then tap the brakes. If the cruise disengages, your pedal switch is OK. If not, then it's the switch.

Tom.

I think there are more than one set of contacts in that switch, so that test may not be valid for all cars...

Follows...more of that fine German engineering. I guess it never occured to them that trunk lids will need to be opened and closed over time. I guess I'm about due for the brake pedal switch failure.. glad I read this thread.

-- Cliff

More likely the loom has been disturbed for accident repairs etc and not correctly replaced.