After 72,000 miles, my brake lights started burning out in rapid succession. And not just burning out, but cracking open like an egg shell.
Upon removal of the brake light assembly I found that there was a loose piece of plastic in the upper chamber with a melted spot the same size as the lamp.
I assumed that this was the cause of the lamp overheating and breaking. Since the whole unit is sealed, I decided to try and extricate the piece through the socket opening. This proved time-consuming, difficult and in the end, I ruined the socket contacts.
Having broken one, I decide to disassemble the other one to see what the heck was going on. Here's the scoop.
For some reason (I assume optical) the brake light has an inner piece of plastic that simply snaps into place. Both my left and right ones seem to have disengaged and thus flopped down onto the bulb surface, creating a hot spot on the bulb that soon burnt them out.
Now that I see how this is supposed to work, I think the best course of action is to simply snap the plastic into place, by pushing it back up against the red lens using some sort of tool going through the removed socket.. Better yet, apply some glue (Like epoxy) to make sure it doesn't come loose again.
Also, my sockets had become brittle and charred. It's probably not a bad idea to replace at least these two; they are only about $6 a piece.
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Above left: lens in correct position, green indicates burn mark.
Above right: lens flops down and contacts bulb.
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