A neighbor notices my driver's side brake light (99' GCL) is not working when stopping. No problem, but we find this:

With the headlights on, the driving light works, but stepping on the brakes, the light goes out and no brake light either.

Turn off the headlights, step on the brakes, all the proper brake lights comes on perfectly.

Pulled the bulb out, it's fine, you can see the connection wires are on solid.

Any clues as to why I don't have a brake light when the headlights are on?

Youve got a short or a bad connection. Try cleaning the bulb socket and make sure it is grounded good. To check for a bad ground run a jumper wire from a good ground to the outside of the bulb socket and then check to see if the problem goes away.

Okay, yes, I did do that earlier, and even tried a new bulb, same problem. So it must be a bad connection or ground somewhere.

Okay, yes, I did do that earlier, and even tried a new bulb, same problem. So it must be a bad connection or ground somewhere.
Notied your brake light problem and wondered what the final fix was. I have exactly the same problem on my 2001 Cherokee. Can you help?

I think that what you have is a bad connection. My 95 CG laredo has this wierd problem where it says the brake lights are out (the screen at the bottom of the dash, has a picure of the jeep form the top and the tailights keep blinking). and the taillights are just fine. so i think that its simply a bad connection. the jeep dealer can fix that no problem.

TRy running a Jumper wire from a good ground to the tail light assembly and see if you notice any difference. There is a bad connection or short somewhere in the light ass. and when you turn your lights on it takes all the avaible ground.

Thanks Cam7 but these Cherokees have a plastic housing with a single plug connection with three bulbs that fit into sockets that they themselves fit into holes in the housing that when twisted into place the contacts meet and presto there is light. In other words pretty hard to jump.

Any chance it has something to do with the switch on the brake? Thanks!

I just fixed a taillight/brakelight problem on my '93 gc. symptom: with lights on, turn signal lite did not work, but brake lite/running light filaments flashed alternately. I removed housing and grommet that wire feeds thru into body and discovered poor connection at harness connector. It was impossible to make the connection and stuff it back in the hole...had to take interior panel apart to make connection...It works perfectly now, except brake light failure is still indicated on control panel.
jerry

Did either of you guys get your brake light issue fixed? I have the same problem on a 2000 GCL where the brake light onthe passenger side won't work when the lights are on.
Thanks

I just fixed the problem with mine. Went out and took the bulb out, scraped all the socket contacts, put it back in and it worked. (just gotta make sure the bulb and the socket is turned in the correct fashion).