Hood AND brake lights not working

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burmagirl
Z Register member
Joined: Sun 09 Jul, 2006 17:11
Posts: 575

  Z3 roadster 3.0i

Hood AND brake lights not working

Post by burmagirl »

Hello all

I went to put my hood down this morning and it didn't work - no motor noise, nothing. I changed the fuse and it went down. Went to put it back up - nothing. Then I discovered my brake lights weren't working either. Does this point to the sensor switch by the brake pedal, or something else - does anyone know?

I spoke to someone at my garage but he is new and didn't seem to know anything (including what a Z3 is - kept saying but surely you've got brake lights further up near the roof as well :shock: ).

I had to turn the setting in the boot to manual; I assume it needs a reset to get it back to electric. Obviously I can operate the roof manually but apart from the danger of someone running into me, I think it's illegal to drive without brake lights! They must have been working a month ago or it wouldn't have passed its MOT. But the garage is swamped so can't do anything at present...

TIA

Sue
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Robert T
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Joined: Mon 12 Jun, 2006 10:35
Posts: 10170

  Z3 roadster 1.9
Location: Cheshire

Re: Hood AND brake lights not working

Post by Robert T »

Hi Sue,

Check fuses first, but you are right, the common component to both systems is the switch on the brake pedal. I don't think it is a massive job to change it - garage should do it in less than half an hour. You really don't want to be driving without brakelights.

Cheers R.

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Arctic Silver '99 Z3 1.9 & Black '59 Frogeye 1275cc
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burmagirl
Z Register member
Joined: Sun 09 Jul, 2006 17:11
Posts: 575

  Z3 roadster 3.0i

Re: Hood AND brake lights not working

Post by burmagirl »

Hi Robert, good to hear from you. I thought it must be the switch; the only thing that concerned me was that it seemed like it blew the fuse again. I've run out of fuses now so can't try again.

I'm going to drop it in to the garage tomorrow morning with Al driving down the A1 behind me, hopefully no-one will run into me (including him). I'm hoping the garage can do something quickly but it might be sometime next week.

Sue
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Robert T
Site Admin
Joined: Mon 12 Jun, 2006 10:35
Posts: 10170

  Z3 roadster 1.9
Location: Cheshire

Re: Hood AND brake lights not working

Post by Robert T »

Hi Sue,

I inhabit the woodwork round here :wink:

If it is blowing fuses, then that puts a slightly different slant on it. My guess is that you have a short in the brake lights, most likely in the boot lid wiring loom. It could also be that the switch has failed in such a way as to cause a short there. The problem is in breaking into the wiring loom somewhere to check for a short. Do you know which fuse blew?

Cheers R.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Arctic Silver '99 Z3 1.9 & Black '59 Frogeye 1275cc
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burmagirl
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Joined: Sun 09 Jul, 2006 17:11
Posts: 575

  Z3 roadster 3.0i

Re: Hood AND brake lights not working

Post by burmagirl »

Hi Robert

not really; I tried putting the hood down and nothing happened so I changed the fuse. The hood went down - I went to put it back up and nothing happened. I asked Al to check if the brake lights were coming on and they weren't so I changed that fuse and still nothing. Then I switched the hood to manual. But the hood did go down that once so if the second fuse blew the only things I'd done were to press down the brake pedal and press the close button for the hood.

There's been no water ingress anywhere; but the hood hasn't been down for the better part of a year.

regards

Sue
burmagirl
Z Register member
Joined: Sun 09 Jul, 2006 17:11
Posts: 575

  Z3 roadster 3.0i

Re: Hood AND brake lights not working

Post by burmagirl »

Hello everyone

I forgot to reply to let you know that in the end it turned out to be the switch down by the pedal, so luckily much cheaper than if the garage had had to take the car apart!!

thanks to you all for replying.

Sue
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