Researching this switch it seems like it is prone to failure. I have not had any problems with it in over ten years until the other day I jumped my battery.
Seems like when I corrected the bad connection at the positive battery terminal the 50 amp jump starter sent quite a jolt to the car. The rear lamps and brake lights would no longer turn on.
I checked all of the fuses and all are in good working order, reseated every one just to be sure.
One of the taillights would not go on so I inspected it and the metal wire on the bottom of the bulb seemed like it was bent out of place. Fixed that, works. Not sure if the bent wire was caused by an overload to the system or just a coincidence because it always worked before.
The only problem left is the brake lights won't go on, obviously a major safety issue. I got under the dash and jiggled one of the two switches (I have cruise control) and got power through the switch. I think the cruise control switch is higher up near the brake arm pivot.
I am pretty sure the one I jiggled is the BOO switch because the warning indicator lamp turns on. I have had a short somewhere in this circuit for some time (but all of the lights always worked) and the warning light always turned on when I used the brake pedal or hit the right turn signal.
Maybe jumping the battery fried the BOO, not sure.
BTW - All of this due to a bad switch in the vanity mirror that bled the battery... damn.
Thanks, Matt