When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
At gas station I saw the brake lights were on even though the engine was off and nobody was pressing the brake pedal. When I arrived home I disconnected the battery. I think the problem is the brake switch somewhere under the pedal. Car is 19 Y/O with more than 300k on it. Anyone has the same experience and how to change it? Thanks
It's usually just a big ol momentary switch near the pivot of the brake pedal. Had to swap one in my friend's '08 civic. They're not necessarily hard to replace, just a bit of a pain because it's a bit of a tight-ish area.
Only thing mounting the switch is the threaded collar and the electrical plug on the back end. Unthread the collar, remove electrical plug, remove switch. Drop new switch in, thread the collar back on, adjust the position of the brake switch as necessary by the threads. The switch is normally closed, so you'll want to make sure that the switch is being fully depressed when the brake pedal is up. You'll also want to make sure that the switch is not depressed (e.g. switch shut) when you depress the brake.
Before you go and replace it, I'd honestly check if the brake switch needs to be adjusted. There's also a chance that the switch stopper broke and it's not depressing the switch (i.e. not opening that circuit, leaving the brake lights on). If you've noticed any mystery broken white plastic pieces, that's probably it. If you have a multimeter, you can also pull the switch and test it to see if that's actually the culprit. Should show continuity if the button isn't depressed, and an open circuit if the button is depressed. If the stopper is in tact, switch works fine, and it's adjusted properly, you'll probably have to do some exploring to find the root cause of your issue.
Nabbed this pic from an ebay listing. Arrow points at the stopper, and you can see it interacting with the switch
yessir . Thank you The plastic stopper was the problem. I found it crumbled on the floor. I bought a package of 2 from Advanced Autoparts for about $10.00
mine was the stopper as well. Moved thread out of Gen Generation information. Issues have a proper issues section. General section is for car information like which models come equipped with what. etc.
If you don't know which subsection you need to post every gen issues section have a sub-section called General. that's the place.
