Brake dash light flickering

[Richy04]

Hi Rich here,

Another friendly thread regarding diagnosis and repair. My better half told me that once in a while the (dash) brake light flickers.

It was an easy fix, front brake pads....

The reason why the light flickers, is on hard braking or acceleration the brake fluid sloshes forward and backward and this causes the switch built into the master cylinder reservoir to drop and trigger the light. These cars have dual piston calipers which require lots of fluid from the reservoir to fill them as the pads wear down. The level of fluid slowly drops with pad wear.

The drop then triggers the light as the fluid moves around.

I know most of you know this, but it seems the question comes up often enough since most cars wont trigger a brake light on the dash unless the brakes fail or the emergency brake is on.

[Zack]

Lesson: Check your brake fluid more often :rolleyes:

[TAKEDOWN]

^^^^^^ That's awesome! ^^^^^^

[Richy04]

You are right Zack,

I did check it, about 8 months ago.. LOL, but topping off the fluid would result in rotors grinding when it comes to my wife.. Anyway, she packed 20k miles on the car in a year and a half. Faster than I can PM the car. When I come home she is never there, always at the school volunteering or running around town so the few times I am available, we just cant line up..

I guess you dont have kids yet, you'll see!!

[Zack]

I guess you dont have kids yet, you'll see!!

Sorry, Becky and I are not and will not EVER be tired of extra money, free time and sleep :eek: :up:

[fastblackmerc]

You are right Zack,

I did check it, about 8 months ago.. LOL, but topping off the fluid would result in rotors grinding when it comes to my wife.. Anyway, she packed 20k miles on the car in a year and a half. Faster than I can PM the car. When I come home she is never there, always at the school volunteering or running around town so the few times I am available, we just cant line up..

I guess you dont have kids yet, you'll see!!

That's the poorest excuse I've ever heard for not doing PM.......

Did you ever think of swapping cars?

[Richy04]

LOL,

I drive 160 miles round trip with a hybrid getting over 50mpg and it has two seats and a stick shift. VS a 5 pass Marauder that gets 20mpg, auto and runs around the shore area of NJ. I guess my daughter will fit in the cargo area of my car.. Hold on, let me check with my wife.

Well, on weekends I can get near it, but lately I've been working lots of OT so all repairs have been on the back burner. It has been to the local dealer for oil changes, but shame on me for expecting them to check the fluids.

BTW, I am not making excuses, there arent any.. But sometimes, ***** happens..

[Hacklemerc]

Lesson: Check your brake fluid more often :rolleyes:


Whoa whoa whoa.... you mean these things have more than just "gas" in them? What is this "brake fluid" you speak of?

On a serious note... this happened to me. The fluid resovoir was low and everytime I hit the brakes the light would come on. after some investigation I discovered and corrected the problem.

[Bradley G]

Great info Richy, I'm ready to flush the brake fluid and install my new rear brakes.