Burn out all 3 brake light bulbs?

My boss's wife has a fairly recent Jeep Cherokee, and some lady pulled next to her to say her brake lights were out. We checked the fuse, still good, figured it was a brake light switch.

They just called, all 3 light bulbs were burned out. Seriously? All at once? (Turn signals and tail lights were working still, she says.)

Have you never been behind a late 90s/early 00s GM product? You're lucky if it has any working lights.

See it all the time. Mostly on vehicles that clearly show the owner's propensity of maintenance and upkeep.

I'm a stickler for lights, especially license plate lights... Don't need an incidental/accidental DUI from a traffic stop involving a burnt out light.

just because 3 are burnt out.. doesn't mean it all happened at the same time. it usually means they never looked at them, as the went out one by one, and were not replaced.

SCARRMRCC wrote: just because 3 are burnt out.. doesn't mean it all happened at the same time. it usually means they never looked at them, as the went out one by one, and were not replaced.

This.

That said my 'rolla has 4 brake light bulbs in the taillights and 1 in the spoiler, and I've had 3 fail within 2 months. Oddly enough since I hooked up a flasher to the one in the spoiler it seems to last much longer, which is good because that weird bulb is hard to find jinxes self

First thought was surge/short that burned them out. Immediate second thought was maybe 1-2 already gone and the third one just went...

I check mine pretty regularly, there's a building next to work with a glass front that I check my reflection almost every day. (Making mental note to check the fiancee's this weekend.)

Hoop wrote: Have you never been behind a late 90s/early 00s GM product? You're lucky if it has any working lights.

Or any Jaguar made in the last 20 years, or any Land Rover, or any VW, or any BMW, or any Mercedes, or any Jeep, or any Audi.

The Jag/LR are particularly funny because you'll usually get one taillight and one brakelight always on with nothing else working.

i had both headlights go out on me on the same day once. one was out on the way to work. went out during lunch and bought 2 bulbs, the other went out when I left the office that afternoon, it was about to pour rain, so I had to pull into the first parking lot I came across to change the bulbs. good thing I bought 2.

Haven't had that happen with brake lights but have had all one side turn signal bulbs go out on a K5 Blazer I had years ago. And had both head light low beams burn out on my Opel GT at the same time.

It's likely a vibration/resonance issue if not the aforementioned lack of maintenance... switch to LEDs and you're done.

Javelin wrote:

Hoop wrote: Have you never been behind a late 90s/early 00s GM product? You're lucky if it has any working lights.

Or any Jaguar made in the last 20 years, or any Land Rover, or any VW, or any BMW, or any Mercedes, or any Jeep, or any Audi. The Jag/LR are particularly funny because you'll usually get one taillight and one brakelight always on with nothing else working.

You forgot one, Volvo.

The wiring on 90's - mid 00's American cars is E36 M3. If it was an E36 M3, none of the pixels would work, the screen wouldn't wouldn't even light up! I'd try replacing one of them with the same type of bulb from another car and see what happens. Often, the ground wire on these cars goes bad so the tailights will illuminate but then when the brakes are applied, the light will go out.

Also remember that when one goes you are getting more amperage / power to the other remaining bulbs. This puts more strain on the filament and they will burn out sooner. So ya as soon as one goes the changes for the 2nd and 3rd to go in short order is not unusual. Also the simple fact is that bulbs have a lifespan since all are used at the same time and were probably installed at the same time having them all burn out close to one another is completely expected.

Another thing is that there could be a bad ground in the circuit. This causes more resistance in the circuit and will kill bulbs faster and thus they can fail closer together.

Worst I ever had was both headlights blowing out in my first Fiat Spider. At the same time.

Also lost a highbeam to that voltage spike. Managed to get the car home, at 2am, with just the passengerside high