SwedeSpeed - Volvo Performance Forum banner

Stop Light Malfunction (good bulb)

1 reading
10K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  zuperman  
#1 ·
2015 XC60 R-Design, 50K miles. Lately car's been having intermittent left-side brake light issues, and it does not appear to be the bulb. Dash shows message "Stop Light Malfunction" and confirmed visually that only the left brake light was out. However, the light might start working again without any intervention. Jiggling the socket or harness doesn't appear to get the light to work.
Replaced using new P21W bulbs, as well as swapped over the bulb from the known-working right side.
There was another similar instance nearly 5 years ago (10/2017) with the car throwing Stop Light Malfunction message, that was taken care of by the dealer under warranty (found PBM brake module fault, replaced PBM).

Anyone else experience similar issue? I have plenty of new P21W bulbs (Philips and OSRAM) so can safely say it's not a faulty bulb. Assuming it's not a bad connection in harness or socket, what else might it be?

Does any know more about whether this PBM module might be related (or where it is, if it's user-replaceable without encoding, etc)?

On another note, that 10/2017 service visit they also replaced my battery due to bad cell (which resulted in weak starting). Coincidently, around the same time the car was throwing Stop Light Malfunction messages), the battery was dying (no longer holding charge). Car has a new battery now, but it seems like a strange coincidence and thought I'd mention it.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
10/50 is the left rear brake bulb. It goes from the CEM to the brake bulbs.
10/19 is the 3rd brake light, LED. Not sure why the PBM would have affected the brake bulb.
Look at bulb socket #4 contact points for any arcing on the socket contacts and where the bulb socket contacts, contact the lamp body contacts for any arcing. Replace bulb socket #4 if needed. You may end up replacing the lamp body if the contacts can not be cleaned. Try dielectric grease on the contacts.

Image

Image
 
#3 ·
Thank you so much for the diagram! So basically, left and right stop lights are on two different circuits from CEM. Then assuming it's not the wiring, not the socket, not the bulb, then knock on wood it isn't the CEM.
I'm curious if the database indicates where the CEM is and which plug/terminal to probe (C2.59?)
BTW what do you use to look this up?

Thanks
 
#6 ·
Thank you again volvogod. Workload got in the way but I do have some dielectric grease somewhere, that'll be the easy thing to try. I may also have to devote some time to play around with the vm image (seeing that the online EWD sometimes says something about 'Context Root Not Found').

Zuperman good luck with yours as well. I'll let you know if I find anything, and please let me know if you do, too.
 
#7 ·
Well it did turn out to be a bad connection somewhere close by the bulb socket. Since I didn't have a helper, one thing I did differently was I used an umbrella to keep the brake pedal depressed (to keep the brake light activated) while jiggling the socket and wires (previously - jiggle weires, then depress brake to check against illumination). Still need a permanent fix, but at least the problem got narrowed down. Space is kinda tight to work on the tailight wiring, so am not looking forward to it.

Thanks again volvogod for your assistance.