How do I change a brake light bulb on my 1997 Ford Escort Wagon?

remove your tail light bulbs than put in a new fuse if it does not blow it is a bulb socket put one bulb back in check the fuse if it blows remove bulb. than put bulb in other socket if it doesnt blow with new fuse you will know what socket to replace. if this was helpful please leave feedback

is brake pedal hard to push down without engine running ,if so proceed to step two and thats to start engine and then push on brake and if pedal softer to push then the servo is working ,now if excessive pedal travel with engine running then remove the rear drums ,make sure the outside lip is cleaned out and then adjust the brake shoes manually till they rub when you turn the drum ,this will cure it but remember that it has to bed in of course new pads brake disks ,new shoes and drums it has to bed in so give it a chance .

Common problem with these cars are that the rubber piece that "gaps" your brakepedal from the micro-switch keeps breaking (they usually have a replacement rubber piece connected on the brake pedal beside it). If your brake lights won't go off because of this, either change-out this rubber gap piece - or, you can just change the gap with a wrench, and not even use the rubber gap piece (this is what I ended up doing on a couple of my escorts).

Hi
Fords suffer with earth/groud problems, check all the earth leads from the battery to the car body ensure they have a good connection, most of the time it is the rear lights that cause the problem so check them and I do mean wire by wire being careful not to miss anything, there is a small black wire in the boot that go's from the light cluster to the body make sure this has a good connection to the body also.

Lastly check the park lights around the bulb to see if the bulb is contacting the metal rim cooerctly.

Hope this helps
Regards
Dan

sounds like a ground problem or malfunctioning signal switch

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How to change your brake fluid video

Good work, and good luck.

Sounds like your brake light switch has gone bad. It is located on your brake pedal and is easy to change and relatively inexpensive. Let me know if you have any more questions. Thanks for rating my response and for using FixYa!

do you have a coupe(2 door), sedan (4 door) or wagon (grocery giter)

replace bulbs

If just the shifter light is out then it is not the fuse, the top plate of the shifter just pulls off, on some models there are 2 screws, the bulb is below that top plate.