Greetings Everyone,

First and foremost let me say that I'm glad I found you all online as this is my first post. I repaired the RCM with my soldering iron like instructed in the famous post I'm sure most of you know about. Before that I changed the Crank Shaft Position Sensor, and of course we all know this doesn't really take care of the problem.

I have a 2004 V6 3.2L Coupe, and being familiar with soldering with motherboards on PCs and etc, I figured I could tackle this task with no problem. So, upon seeing the horrible condition of the job done on the RCM, I decided to fix it....

(This is where I'm sure most people are going to lose it)

I saw other poorly done areas, and I decided to fix them as well. I put it back together, and she started right up. Headlights were on, and brake lights were on. Got into the car, and drove off into the night until I was later pulled over by a cop informing me that my brake lights were in fact off. Now, upon restarting, I did get the "BAS/ESP" indication for the first time.

All fuses are good to go, on drivers side, and on passenger under hood. The problem again is that when headlights are on, brake lights are not while driving at night. When I press the brakes, they do illuminate, but go completely dark again after I lift off the pedal.

Are there any suggestions as to what I can do? Please don't say I'm the first guy to ever have this issue after repairing the RCM because that's going to suck if I am, lol. If I somehow ruined the RCM, that's exactly what I get because I couldn't just be happy with following the directions, and I had explore.

Thanks for your help in advance,

Reign

 

First I think you are referring to taillights not brake lights. Are you sure they worked before? It might just be bulbs, I'm sure others will chime in with other like causes.

 

Absolutely right, "Tail lights", and they did. I walked around the car after having someone press the brakes for me, and etc. I'm thinking I may have shorted an area of the board out somehow. Like I said, I got a little carried away with the soldering. So, if it's something that can't be explained, I'm thinking it's because of my slight issue with being a perfectionist when dealing with such things.

 

Is there something that you have missed out, how long have you had the car?
You seem to indicate that all was well before you did the soldering. I cannot think of anything in the RCM that would cause this.

 

I agree with 180, however to make sure, isn't there another owner close to you that would let you try their RCM ?

 

Just for kicks check the bulbs. You can test them with a 9v battery if needed.

 

I'm a little thick but I am confused when you headlights are on, did you switch them on or do they come on when you start the car. When you mention fuses you are a bit vague, have you looked at the fuse panel on the end of the dash panel inside the car. You see the cover when you open the door.
The rear lights can have problems if the wrong bulb is used as the terminals on the socket align with the bulb incorrectly. The brake light filament in the bulb gets no power and the rear light acts as a brake light, or something like that.
Describe what happens when you have the light switch off, what lights come on by themselves?

 

I've had the car since 2012, and I was a victim of the "Mystery no start" for a while. I happened to get my hands on a Motus, and the code that came up was that it needed a Crankshaft Position Sensor. At this time everything was going well. All lights, Taillights, etc, was working normally.

I replaced the CPS, and drove it around for about another week until I went outside to leave, and the car wouldn't start at all. Finding solutions and suggestions from Google, I found a link to this car forum with the RCM thread. As soon as I repaired the RCM (with my added additions), I put it back in. The car started again, amazingly.

After doing an inspection around the car while it was running at night, all taillights, brake lights, and headlights were working just fine. Upon Restart though, the BAS/ESP light appeared on the dash for the first time, and then went off. By this time I had already driven off, only to be informed later that my taillights were in fact, off.

The fuses by the driver side door on the left side of the dash are all working fine. The fuses located on the RCM are also in tack. I've checked the bulbs, and all is well.

I've found a used RCM on ebay, that should be arriving soon. Got it for under $50.00, and the Seller has a high rating and said it's in working condition. When it arrives I'll put it in and will report back with the conclusion. If all goes well, this will surely be a lesson learned, lol.

 

When I turn the headlights on, I have no taillights. Like I said, the lights and tail lights were working fine before I altered the RCM, and after restarting it, and after a few minutes, I'm guessing the taillights went out.

I'll check to make sure that my bulbs are correct, and will report back if anything changes. Thanks for the troubleshooting.

 

I suppose that you could have had the problem before the RCM work was done, the light switch could be causing trouble, it has before.
When did you walk around the car and inspect the lights, I am confused with the time line here, others may assume the correct sequence of events but what I understand may not be true. You say you walked around the car and all was fine but after the restart it had problems. I cannot quite convince myself you are talking in minutes or weeks.

 

Not a problem, .

We're talking a matter of minutes after repairing the RCM in the same night. This all happened yesterday.

I took it out of the car first after a week of not being able to start. Now, last week before it died on me after repairing the RCM, all lights and everything else worked normally as it should.

So, after repairing the RCM yesterday, I put it back in the car, cranked it up as usual. It was dark by this time, around 6:32pm Est. I checked the signals, headlights, tail, and brake lights. After finishing the inspection and making sure everything was working as it should, I noticed the BAS/ESP indication for the first time. It was around 6:45pm. I managed to reset the BAS/ESP, and proceeded to drive around to see if whether or not it would shut off on me again.

The car ran fine, and after being pulled by an Officer that night, I was informed that I had no taillights. This was around 7:15pm.

 

Hello all,

It has been forever. Turns out that the RCM was fine, feel free to fix whatever joints you see that need fixing. I found out that my light system was out due to a faulty pigtail on my left rear tail light/ brake light, connection which caused the Bas/Esp sensor to display on deck. I ordered a new pigtail off of Ebay for about 12 dollars US.

Also the mystery no start could easily be caused by the wire that connects to the crankshaft position sensor, so the car ended up shutting off again. It ended up being the connectors from the said wire to create a faulty connection until I bent them back into proper position. The CSPS was fixed after that, and amazingly, that solved all my problems.

 

That is great news, simple faults that caused you a lot of misery all solved for just a little money.

 

There are issues with a non Bosch cps having slightly smaller pins and losing contact. Did you use a Bosch part?