Brake Pedal and side lights

[jamiern]

Has anyone heard or seen why when your brake pedal is pressed the side lights come on?

Mk2 1.9 115 auto

[insanitybeard]

Greetings!

Normally I'd think it may be a wiring short due to chafed wiring where the wiring loom passes from the vehicle body into the tailgate, the flexing of the wiring loom here over time with repeated opening/ shutting of the bootlid causes cables to flex, and either chafe or break, causing short circuits or open circuits. However, as the sidelights and brake lights (other than the centre brake light) are in the body and not the tailgate, I'm thinking there's a chance something else could be causing it- is it all the sidelights that come on when you press the brake pedal or just the rear? (or front for that matter!) And are the brake lights working at the same time as this is happening?

[bigdave982]

Yup usualy means some muppet has jammed a single pole bulb into the twin pole socket, press brakes and electric shoots yp to the front of the car and turns on sidelights

[Chrispb]

Number plate lights feed and high level stop light feed shorted will do the same.

[insanitybeard]

I completely forgot about the number plate lamps being fed via the tailgate wiring, what a plonker!