[T3] DOT 5 and brake light switches

[Jim Adney]

On 3 Nov 2015 at 15:08, Sean Bartnik wrote:
 
> So you guys who are running DOT 5, what brand brake light switches are you having good luck with?

This is a really difficult question to answer. In my opinion, the old 
OG switches are all starting to fail at just about the same time that 
many people are getting into DOT-5. At the same time, the replacement 
switches "all" seem to be of poor quality. Together, this makes 
getting to the root of the problem really difficult.

I assume the Crate still has single circuit brakes. This has the 
advantage that when the single switch dies, the system stops working. 
Cars with tandem systems don't show symptoms until BOTH switches 
fail.

Last time I stocked up on switches, I bought a couple of the 
expensive ones, too. I wanted to see if they were actually any 
better. For the record, if you ever take an original Ate switch 
apart, you'll be astonished at the quality of the internal 
construction. No wonder they could not afford to continue making and 
selliing them. If you'd be willing to ship me the FTE one, I'd love 
to cut it apart and report back to everyone about it.  

The Brazilian ones tended to fail after an internal plastic part got 
hot and melted. The first Chinese Meyle ones came with the wrong 
pinouts. One of the "good, revised" Meyle Chinese ones that I sold to 
Dave Pallo turned out to have faulty internal parts, so that it never 
did work, but he had no way of knowing that in his tandem system.

I'd love to be able to say that the FTE ones have solved the problem, 
but that doesn't appear to be the case. Let me take a look inside 
your failed one. I really don't want to destroy a perfectly good one 
to that end.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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