Car problem: Brake light staying on after I turn the car and lights off?
PLEASE tell me this has happened to someone? and help me please ): I have no clue what to do, I drove to my bfs last night and he noticed my lights were on but when I went to check my lights weren’t on but the brake lights were, It seems they are jammed or something? I’m not sure. I drove home last night hoping when I got home the problem would be fixed but I parked my car and checked and they were still on, So I went to sleep hoping for the best, I woke up this morning at 8am to go check if the battery had died and it was still good, now 11 30ish and it has just died. What can I do to fix this?
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9 Answers
Get your car to a mechanic – you either have a bad brake light switch or some kind of short. If you don’t have jumper cables you may have to call a tow truck.
Do you have an e-brake? And if so, did you pull it some small amount? (oh, and you’ll probably have to replace your battery now)
yea I played with the ebake a little last night; no luck. great. (=
Ok, well, TEMPORARY fix… pull out your cars manual, and find out which fuse the brake lights are on. Then, pull said fuse out. That should kill them, and stop the drain on your battery.
The problem with this is, you won’t have any brake lights. So only do it if absolutely necessary, and try to do short trips with VERY limited traffic. And take it to a mechanic asap to get fixed. If the e-brake isn’t tripped and you haven’t left the lights on or something in some way… then you probably have a crossed wire or something along those lines.
thanks for being so helpful (=
Brake light switch. It’s a dead-man switch located at the top of the brake pedal arm on most cars. It’s spring loaded and normally closed, with the brake pedal arm holding it open when it’s full up. That’s probably where your problem is, maybe the brake pedal arm isn’t in contact with it.
Some cars don’t have these; e.g., Mercedes Benzes, true to typical German over-engineering, operate the brake light from the hydraulics.
You can access the switch yourself (assuming you don’t drive a Benz); it will be located under the dash, near the top of the brake pedal. Maybe it’s come loose. If you are at all mechanically inclined, it’s something you can fix yourself.
Can you slide your foot under the brake pedal and lift it up? Do your lights turn off then?
Sometimes the pedal hardware get a little rusty and stick a bit. Also @IchtheosaurusRex is right about the brake light switch. It is mounted so it touches the arm attached to the brake pedal. It can loosen. You will have to look under the dash. It is easy to fix.
If it is just your pedal you can spray a little WD-40 on the pivot shaft. Good Luck.
There is an electrical short.
Your car isn’t by any chance German?
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