Hello, my girlfriend has a 2000 stratus 4cyl 2.0 . Whenever she would hit the brakes the radio would go off and stay off until the next time it was started up. Dome light does not work at all and i've noticed the brake lights do not work at all. So my research said brake light switch so i took it off. When i moved her car to take my truck to advance auto for the new part, the radio worked just fine while applying the brakes multiple times. However i did not notice if the lights worked. I replaced the brake light switch and nothing works still. Ive checked all fuses and lights bulbs all is fine. I am lost, any help would be awesome.

 

Welcome to DF
You could have a short or a bad BCM. You may need to take the car to a shop to find the problem.

 

How do you diagnose a bad BCM? I also have a computer scanner. Would this give me any codes to help me out?

 

How long as this problem been going on and when did it start? And has then been any work done on the car, that may have cause this problem.

 

No work has been done on it this past year.She bought the car off her best friend so i will make a call and find out more info.Problem started roughly around Thanksgiving. I do appreciate your quick responses.

 

Just wondering if anyone found the fix for this. I have same issue, haven't replaced stoplight switch yet, but disconnected it, and still nothing at all...

 

Check EVERY fuse, not just the ones related to the issue you are having. I had a 94 Intrepid that did about the same thing...it's been so long I don't recall exactly, but it was multiple issues just like this including radio and interior lights. There ended up being a bad fuse that had nothing to do with any of those circuits...again cannot recall which fuse, but unrelated...was partially burnt and casing a short to ground which was giving feedback into the other circuits causing them to not function properly. I'd also check EVERY light bulb in the circuits affected, as I had a vaugly similar problem in a friends Buick...filament burnt just enough to drop down and short out instead of just burning up.

Other than that, try unplugging the stop switch and see what happens, if everything works (except brake lights) then check for corrosion and then spray some electrical contact cleaner in plug end and switch end and plug/unplug a few times to clean any varnishing that MAY have occured, then leave plugged in and see what happenes...if the problem still persists then you have some diagnosing to do in the brake light circuit...

I can try to help you by explaining things to check for after you've tried everything I listed thus far, but I may not be very useful because I have a hard time explaining electrical on a beginners level...no offense, but I have been around it my entire life and based 5 years of college in that specific field so it just comes natural to me and makes perfect sense in my head, but to put it into words can be difficult for me.

Anyway, try what has been suggested so far and go from there, if no luck, come back here and explain to the best of your ability what is and is not happening and hopefully I or someone else will be able to help.

 

Lol... No offense taken, I understand how u feel. I'm an electrician myself, just clueless when it comes to cars. Too many wires, and too many you can't see. I have checked all fuses, and replaced all 3 brake lights. Taillights have been fine. Car sat for a week at my shop,then radio started going out when I hit brakes. Didn't know til yesterday that my brake lights didn't work. Been going on for about 3 months, was just living with radio not working. I unplugged the stoplight switch, and nothing happened. Not sure where to go next. I may need to start checking all wires for shorts, possibly pull radioi and chek it out.
Appreciate any help with this.

 

What year and model if its a sedan try pulling fuse #5 or unhook battery for about 5 or 10 minutes ,then start and let run 5 minutes or so,sounds like could be communication problem with body control module maybe.

 

Well, if you are an electrician...stop by the local Auto Zone or Advance Auto and pick up the Haynes or Chilton's manual...I am losing A LOT of faith in their usefulness as to instructions for part removal and such, but they do have electrical schematics in the back few pages...you should be able to follow them pretty well.

You can go about checking for shorts just fine, but I have found it a waste of time to start ohming out the wiring in a car. Cuz chances are if there is an issue with current due to high resistance, it's hard to find this way cuz of stranded wires. Just like hooking a dryer up with phone wire...it'll ohm out and show continuity just fine with your trusty Fluke, but will NEVER carry the current needed to start up the dryer...same thing applys here, usually a couple strands will still be holding on for dear life, and unless there is a lot of corrsion in the break, those strands will read (near) 0 ohms. Just get the schematic and check for voltages in places, and remember you are dealing with computers so many of your voltages may be only 5 volts or even 2V...not 12 volts like you MIGHT think cuz that is what the battery is. Basically if you see ANY significant voltage at your test points, it is probably working just as it should.

Let me know what you may find out and we'll go from there.