98' Escort Brake lights

[mt54]

Brake lights don't work either side, 3rd light works fine,turns work fine, running lights work fine, grounds look good.
any help would be great....

[mightymoose_22]

Sounds like the bulbs are out.

[Selectron]

Yep, it could be the bulbs so check those first. The two lamps have separate grounds so it's unlikely to be a ground fault. If the bulbs are ok then the fault will likely be in the region of the flasher unit.

That particular fault would be unlikely to happen on the wagon, so you probably have the sedan, eh. The sedan's high-mount stop lamp has a direct path from brake switch, through lamp, to ground, so that will be why it's still working, but the left and right stop lamps are routed via the electronic flasher unit. The only sections of the circuit which are common to both left and right lamps are the feed wire into the flasher unit, and the flasher unit itself so your fault is almost certainly in one of those, which I've marked in red in the wiring diagram below. The diagram is for a '97, but the stop lamp wiring is identical in your '98.

Check for continuity in the wire into the flasher unit, and if that's ok and if the connector is plugged in securely then you'll likely need to replace the unit.

Or if you have a multimeter or test lamp, you could check for 12V into the flasher unit on terminal 4, and out of the unit on terminals 2 (left lamp) and 5 (right lamp) when the brake is applied. You'll find a whole lot more terminals on the flasher unit - the diagram only shows the terminals which are involved in stop lamp operation.

I'll also add the diagram for the flasher unit location for the '97, although I don't know for sure if it's in the same place on your '98.

'97 Escort stop lamp wiring diagram
'97 Escort flasher unit location

[Selectron]

Just looking more closely at the '98 wiring diagram and although the wires for the left and right stop lamps exit the flasher unit on separate wires, they share the same connector - C296, and are then routed to the fuse panel where they both enter on connector C220. Two conductors then carry the current across the fuse panel, exiting on shared connector C270. After that point, the paths are separate.

You'll be checking C296 anyway when you check the connections at the flasher unit, but it would also be worth identifying C220 and C270 at the interior fuse panel, and ensuring that they are both undamaged and secure.

The quick way to locate the fault though would be to check for voltage out of the flasher unit on terminals 2 & 5 when the brakes are applied. If there's voltage going in on terminal 4 but none coming out on 2 & 5 then that suggests a faulty flasher unit, but if you do have voltage out then proceed to check around the fuse box.

This is the '98 diagram - it shows more detail than the '97.

'98 Escort stop lamp wiring diagram

[mt54]

Thanks for the help. My problem was indeed at the flasher unit at c296 at some point it must have got hot a bit of melting plastic made for bad connection.. cleaned it reconnected and checked for excessive heat all is good...

[Selectron]

That's good - thanks for letting us know. I don't recall hearing about that particular fault before so I think it's probably quite an unusual one.