Lift up on the brake pedal. See if it goes away. If the pedal sags due to a weak master cylinder, it can do the same thing.

If the brake light switch were the culprit, how could it set off the tailight brakelights but not the center brake light at the same time?

you know what, thats EXACTLY what i was thinking...if its THAT switch, then how would replacing the same switch make the difference. but i mean, what else IS there?

and will, there is no pedal sag. i tried pulling up and it did nothing.

What did you mean by '1st stage brake lights'

oh. what i meant was, is that I have been able to press the brake VERY carefully and have it turn on, JUST the lowers and then a litte harder will turn on the high stop brake light. So thats what made me think, well then it must be the same switch that happens to have two stages.

I checked a wiring diagram & was able to get the lights on our 89 to do the same thing. The switch must have separate contacts for the high brake light. I'd say you're back to changing the switch.

Ok, so i went under there and did it. it was a PITA but i did it. the pedal was ALL the way up against the switch and it was still only turning off the top stop light. so i pulled the old one out (with much gusto required), and installed and adjusted and guess what. IT WORKS. It was the switch, no short, its all good.

hah, i thought it was funny that EVERYTHING under there is dated 11/29/88. So I guess my car was manufactured on Nov 28, 1988! So, hah, i guess my car isn't 18 years old, I guess its 19 years old! JEES.

Thanks for the help guys. Jees, what would i do without this club?

Glad to hear you resolved the problem, John. A little perseverance can go a long way.

Glad it was that easy. BTW.. those manufacture dates..aren't the car. They are the date the parts were manufactured. The car was later.