TripleTransAm
10-22-2003, 06:55 PM
Some of you witnessed me prepare to blow up my wretched Marauder on Saturday night at the hotel, after folks broke the news to me that I had practically no brake lights.
On my way back to the group hotel after dropping off my wife and kid, I did get to notice how the lights would only come on at VERY forceful braking only... the thought of the upcoming 9+ hours of driving home with wife and baby to worry about had me just about ready to torch this sucker.
Some of you may remember a thread from late spring where I complained about my brake lights flickering off whenever I removed the slightest bit of pressure OFF the pedal after applying the brakes. At the time, it was determined that the brake booster rod was 'lazy' and was allowing the brake light switch to open whenever pressure on the pedal was released but with still enough pressure to hold the car with the brakes. A brake booster change alleviated the problem a little bit, enough to satisfy me until a few days before Hershey, at which point I started noticing a return of the symptoms by watching the reflections of my brake lights on reflective surfaces (walls, glass, etc.).
During the drive down to Hershey, I noticed that I needed to apply a fair bit of pressure on the pedal to disengage the cruise control and that when it did, the accelerator would pop up rather noisily. Turns out it was because I was braking without tripping the brake light switch (and hence disengaging the cruise control) so the accelerator would automatically move to compensate for the loss of speed, until I braked enough to trip the lights.
Okay, all the background stuff out of the way... the solution.
I got under the dash (thanks to the hotel staff lending me a flashlight) and noticed the brake switch responded MUCH better to pedal movement if I oriented the switch such that the end with the connectors would point UP into the dash, not completely down as it was previously. In this orientation, the lights trip the MOMENT I touched the pedal, and stay lit ALL the time, never flickering off with pressure variation on the pedal.
My technician feels the switch should respond the same in ALL orientations, so he has a replacement switch ready to go on Friday morning to see if that removes the brake light's sensitivity to brake switch orientation.
There you have it... resolution to something that's been bugging me and my dealer for about 6 months now.
In the meantime, some of you responded in my earlier thread that they had the same issue or similar. As a stopgap until I figure things out on Friday with the new switch, try moving the connector end UP on the brake switch such that it points into the dash, not at the driver's legs as mine had drooped. Probably a temporary fix pending the real solution, but at least now we have a definite smoking gun.
Thanks to Barry and John for being my remote eyes as I lay tits-up in the driver's side footwell playing with this ill-designed piece of crap brake switch. I owe my safe return to Montreal to you guys keeping a close eye on my taillight operation (and thanks to whoever pointed out my initial malfunction over the FRS radio, on the way back from dinner).
On my way back to the group hotel after dropping off my wife and kid, I did get to notice how the lights would only come on at VERY forceful braking only... the thought of the upcoming 9+ hours of driving home with wife and baby to worry about had me just about ready to torch this sucker.
Some of you may remember a thread from late spring where I complained about my brake lights flickering off whenever I removed the slightest bit of pressure OFF the pedal after applying the brakes. At the time, it was determined that the brake booster rod was 'lazy' and was allowing the brake light switch to open whenever pressure on the pedal was released but with still enough pressure to hold the car with the brakes. A brake booster change alleviated the problem a little bit, enough to satisfy me until a few days before Hershey, at which point I started noticing a return of the symptoms by watching the reflections of my brake lights on reflective surfaces (walls, glass, etc.).
During the drive down to Hershey, I noticed that I needed to apply a fair bit of pressure on the pedal to disengage the cruise control and that when it did, the accelerator would pop up rather noisily. Turns out it was because I was braking without tripping the brake light switch (and hence disengaging the cruise control) so the accelerator would automatically move to compensate for the loss of speed, until I braked enough to trip the lights.
Okay, all the background stuff out of the way... the solution.
I got under the dash (thanks to the hotel staff lending me a flashlight) and noticed the brake switch responded MUCH better to pedal movement if I oriented the switch such that the end with the connectors would point UP into the dash, not completely down as it was previously. In this orientation, the lights trip the MOMENT I touched the pedal, and stay lit ALL the time, never flickering off with pressure variation on the pedal.
My technician feels the switch should respond the same in ALL orientations, so he has a replacement switch ready to go on Friday morning to see if that removes the brake light's sensitivity to brake switch orientation.
There you have it... resolution to something that's been bugging me and my dealer for about 6 months now.
In the meantime, some of you responded in my earlier thread that they had the same issue or similar. As a stopgap until I figure things out on Friday with the new switch, try moving the connector end UP on the brake switch such that it points into the dash, not at the driver's legs as mine had drooped. Probably a temporary fix pending the real solution, but at least now we have a definite smoking gun.
Thanks to Barry and John for being my remote eyes as I lay tits-up in the driver's side footwell playing with this ill-designed piece of crap brake switch. I owe my safe return to Montreal to you guys keeping a close eye on my taillight operation (and thanks to whoever pointed out my initial malfunction over the FRS radio, on the way back from dinner).