2000 Blazer short in the stop light system, help :(

[Blacksplinter]

About a year ago I had a short in the brake lights. The ones on the sides quit working, but the high-mount light still works. I checked the lamps, the fuse under the hood, and changed the brake light switch under the pedal with no results.

I took it to Firestone and they fixed it in about an hour for around 45 bucks.

It's happened again. I took it back to Firestone and this time they took almost 3 hours to tell me that the brake lights are going through my turn signal switch, or Multi-function switch. They wanted to change it for 475 bucks and "go from there". I declined that, thinking that if it was going thru the turn signal switch, why was the high-mount still working?

Does anyone know if there's any fusible links or anything else I can check? I'm taking it in the morning to another shop for a second opinion, but I welcome any suggestions.

edit: oops, I think I posted this in the wrong forum. I reposted it under "problem diagnosis".
edit2: found it, I did a little digging and found the recall: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...0&summary=true
Sorry to bother...

[jms122967]

Hopefully this is still covered under the recall timeframe. I had the same problem and was repaired under the recall. But until I got ti in to have the work done, I wedged a folded matchbook in front of the hazard switch(no matches of course) and the pressure caused it to function normally(or not!) until I could make my appointment that they scheduled for 2 weeks! Saved a ticket or worse accident as only the 3rd was working prior to the repair. But since then(5 years) no problems with the switch since. Good luck- and watch the dealers that don't bother checking for the recall or acting like they don't know what you are talking about.