Daft question about brake light

Replaced a bulb in the light cluster on the rear bumper for the sidelight as it had blown. Since then i have noticed that the brake light by the spare wheel illuminates when the side/dipped/main lights are on. it still works as a brake light when the lights are off but i dont think it gets brighter when the lights are on. Is this normal. I didn't notice it before i changed the bulb but i have a terrible memory. I followed another freelander in the dark and his light was off but one of his number plate lights had gone so i am still unsure. Its not really an issue unless its an MOT failure but does cause quite a lot of glare when looking out the rear view. Just wondered if there is a short which caused the bulb to blow in the first place or if its normal for that light to be on.

mines only on when the breaks are on

sounds as though you have a earth problem , or has someone converted it ,is it still a single element bulb?

Haven't looked inside it yet, thought it was weird. time to get the tester out i think. although i dont know what i'm doing with it. oh joy another 1 hour and half poking the thing with a screwdriver and scratching my head.

Probably followed by 15 minutes of swearing

it has be modified. hardly any swearing needed to work it out at all.

Why was it modified?

Can be caused by incorrect bulb, single instead of double contact or other way round, or bad earth.

or bulb fitted incorrectly.

If its a tail light bulb with 2 filaments and twin contacts then its a stop and tail (offset peg), if its just a tail light bulb then it's single filament and single contact with straight peg. The only exception is vehicles fitted with earth return and these are all twin contact (hazardous goods vehicles).

i did not convert my high leavel brake light ,But i did convert the higher level fog lights so that they were side lights as well, so i had 4 lights on the back end insted of 2 tiny ones, will do my latest one soon when we get a nice day, by that time it might be time to swap it again.

the wires has been joined from the off side light to the high level brake light. I can only assume this was done to give more light for hitching up in the dark. freelander has got caravan electrics fitted. that is my guess anyway. will probably disconnect it.