Tonight I found that my brake lights in the 245 were not working.

The bulb failure sensor didn't trigger the orange light on the dash when depressing the pedal, so the only way I would have found out my brake lights weren't working would be to get rearended eventually.

And since my girlfriend is taking it on a 300 mile trip, I figured I had better solve the problem.

So I pulled the wires at the brake pedal switch and checked for continuity.

The switch worked.

Next, I went and rattled the bulbs in their holders and checked the wiring.. Everything was a-ok..

The fuses left something to be desired, but all work.

(note to self to replace with glass tube style)

Anyway, after contemplating where my problem could lie, I pulled the bulb failure sensor.

Then I completed the circuit to the brake pedal switch and the wire from it to the sensor with one of the tail light wires.

Wah-lah.. the brake light came on.

It turns out the fault was in the bulb failure sensor.

What to do???

the contacts were all good, and I opened it up.. nothing appeared fried in the circuitry..

So I soldered a bridge between all 4 of the wires that controlled the rear braking.

(main wire from the brake pedal, the two (right and left) tail lamp wires and the 3rd brake light wire)

Well, success is mine.. The brake lights now work, but at a price...

every time you push the pedal, the failure light on the dash comes on.

OH well will do for now.

Anyway, My whole question is do these things fail that often?>

And what might have caused mine to fail?

Also, are they cheap to replace?

I'd like everything to work 'correctly'

but was happy I could get by for now.

Luke