1995 Geo Prizm. Brake lights work, head lights work, tail lights do not come on. Checked bulbs, fuses - good.

Try to refer to the owners manual. If not, go to the fuse box and see if anything is wired wrong. If you don't know, go to the car dealership and they will test the car and give you a report.

Did you check for voltage to and from brake switch on proper wire colors? Use a testlite to check for voltage, you can see the wire colors in the diagram. At the proper fuse, not only check the fuse, check the fuse circuit for voltage. You can see the top wire is fuse protected and hot all the time. When the brake switch is activated that little line with arrow-head moves to the other terminal and that wire becomes hot.

old post
and double posted anon sameday
backup one and read.

learn that fuse that look bad are bad
fuses the look good can be bad, called hair line cracks poor humans can not see
so we test them and never guess
tail fuse above left knee is in fact blown.
if not the switch is bad.

head lights are not part of this circuit at all, cept plastic knob.

Check the brake light switch under the dash and check the fuses. Also make sure that both bulbs are not bad.

You need to check to see if you are getting power to the tail lights and if you are not getting power check for a blown fuse. If you are getting power check for a blown bulb or bad socket. Now if you are not getting brake lights and you are calling that tail lights then the issue maybe in the brake pedal switch so make sure its actual tail lights out and not brake lights.

Here are some things to check:-

1 The brake light switch
2 The fuse for the brake lights
3 The bulbs for the brake lights
4 The bulb contacts in the brake lights
5 The earth connections in the rear light clusters
6 Generally check for loose or broken wires in the vucinity of the brake light switch and the rear light clusters.

Its crazy but my tail lights went out also and I could not afford to have them fixed but I can tell you how I fixed mine. If you pull the cd player out you have to connect the orange wire also called the dimmer switch the wire is solid orange connect it to the red fire wire that you use to power the cd player and everytime you turn on the ignition switch the tail lights will come on but when the switch is off they will go off.

does the Center brake light work ? I think your looking at replacing the brake light switch !

Took it to the shop. The side marker lights were missing on my son's car. The wiring loops from the side marker lights to the tail lights. As the wires were touching in the front, they shorted out the tail lights. Capped the wires, problem solved!
PS: ordered side marker lights, too.

I had the same problem, what I did to fix it was as follows:

• Removed the plastic light holders from the tail lamp.
• On each of the three bulbs there is a ground wire that is attached to the plastic light holder via a screw. Remove these connections and clean, I used some very light sand paper.
• Reassemble, Worked like a Charm for me, and I save a $90 charge from Firestone by doing it myself...