I have a 54 focus. Today my mate noticed that the brakes bulbs weren’t lighting up, but the strip over the top of the rear windscreen (also a brake light) was.

What could the problem be? Both bulbs are fine.

do the other lights work?

try changing the bulb, it may look fine but it is busted.

I’d check the fuses…anything else not working?

everything else seems fine. I’ll have a look in about 25 mins.

Check you’ve got the right sort of bulb in. My sister put a single element (rather than double element) bulb in her Fiesta and it messed the lighting combinations up.

swap both bulbs and the fuse. might cost you a fiver. should work

Stop with the backstreet garage-esque replace stuff till it works approach! Have they ever worked? Have you got a multi-meter you can test for voltage (hell, you could use your tongue it just stings a bit)?

Figure out if you’re getting power to the brake light connections first, then go from there.

Stop with the backstreet garage-esque replace stuff till it works approach! Have they ever worked? Have you got a multi-meter you can test for voltage (hell, you could use your tongue it just stings a bit)?
Figure out if you’re getting power to the brake light connections first, then go from there.

Why let good old methodical fault finding get in the way?

Q for the OP – how often do you check your lights? My guess is never.

This happened in my old focus, turned out to be two simultaneously blown bulbs. Replaced them and still working 4 years later

This maybe?
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110412153429AAcdNKs

A cheap multimeter is useful for this sort of thing too, i have one of these which is ok for simple low voltage measuring
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Multimeter-Tester-Multi-Meter-MultiTester/dp/B004HSSJXG/

How random.

Went riding with some mates at the weekend, and one of the chaps had a new ish Mondeo with exactly the same issue!

I’ll point him this way.