Brake light on all the time..

[Ade B]

My brake light is permanently on with the tail light..

When I put in a fresh bulb it seems to work fine for a bit and then within a few days its stuck on. The bulbs came from Hein Gericke and are not OE bits (FWIW)..

Is this a simple, common issue (ie. wrong bulb) or do I need to wade in and go through the wiring with a multi meter..

Bike is due MOT at the end of the month, so need to sort soonish..

TIA

Ade

[Blackal]

Have a check of your footbrake switch?

Wouldn't do any harm to stick a voltmeter across it to satisfy yourself that you have found the problem, then give it a WD40-ing

Al

[gus]

Hi ade
Well if its are alright for a few days after just fitting a bulb i doubt its the micro switch.Worth checking all the same as electrickery can be strange at the best of times.Check the front one too. What can happen is the rear lamp holder wears and vibration can cause the bulb to move about in the holder,possibly causing the brake filament to light up.
Hope you sort it out
gus

[Ade B]

Will have a poke about at the weekend... electrics can be a bugger to sort..


Personally I think its related to the new/old orange seat which went on recently

Ta

Ade

[johnl]

my brake light was on permanently and traced it to the microswitch on the front brake lever not disengaging correctly. As said above if yours works for a few days and then goes off it is probably not microswitch but woth a look. On mine the contact point was somewhat bent out of shape.

[oyster]

I had this soon after getting the bike a few years back. It was the blade on the microswitch bent out of place. No idea how it could have happened, it is well hidden behind other bits.[/quote]