Why won't my brake lights work among other things?
We own a 2003 Chevrolet Venture WB Edition and have owned the car for a little over a year. We bought this car directly from a bank as the previous owner turned it in because they could no longer afford the payments. So we have no previous details of any problems the previous owner has had.
We have four major issues with the van. First, our brake lights will not work, but the running lights (which are the same bulb as the brake lights) work just fine. The bracket that holds the light bulb melts the plastic end of the bulb, and therefore we have resorted to buying glass end bulbs that won't melt. However, this does not seem to fix the problem. It is like the bulb is loose or is not receiving the electrical sensor from the brake pedal. I tried switching the light board out and it only caused the new board to fry right before my eyes. I took it to the dealership and they replaced the plug for the board on one side and that seemed to work for a while, but now even that brake light is no longer working. You can physically hit the brake light from the outside and it will turn on, but it does not last long. I know the bulbs are not burned out and are just fine.
Second, our service traction system light goes on and off. When this happens, it is almost like the van has a hard time shifting into first gear when you are at a complete stop, but the rest of the gears are fine.
Third, we have a water leak coming from up under the dash by the driver side and passenger side (mostly on the driver side though) whenever it rains, and is saturating our carpets up under your feet. We noticed this about a month after we bought the car and pulled the carpet back and found a lot of molded out foam barrier that is attached to the carpet. Needless to say we ripped the foam out and now the carpet is just by itself. We still have the water leak and have no idea where it is coming from. We have looked everywhere.
Lastly, our belt is really squeaky and we have had a couple different mechanics look at it and they said the belt looks fine. They would just put some chalk on it and it would stop squeaking for a while. It really starts squeaking when it gets wet. So all we do right now is keep putting chalk on the belt.
Any suggestions as to what may be causing these problems and what can fix them would be helpful, as we do not have a lot of money right now to get all of these professionally fixed, as my husband is a full-time law student. Thank you so much!
