Crazy Brake Light?
 

I was wondering if anyone else has come accross this problem, or at least can point me in the right direction.

I was driving my '82 this morning and noticed that when the tach dipped down to about 1000-1500 rpm the brake light came on. When I braked at the next stop light the light turned off. I also smelled something burning once or twice the day before when I saw this happen, it could have been me feathering the clutch or related to this, I can't remember exactly.

Is there some sort of system that engages the parking brake when your engine dips that low in gear? It doesn't make any sense to me, I checked my brake fluid and it looks good. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that I won't have to adjust the damned brakes and its just some weird way I am using the clutch.

Any ideas on this weird thing?

The clutch is strictly hydraulic and goes from your pedal to your clutch master cylinder. It is in no way connected to your brake system. And, there is no system setup that causes that problem.

By brake light, are you talking about the idiot light in the console or the actual brake lights? If it's the idiot lights, which one is it? Does it say "Stop Light" or "Parking Brake" ? I don't know if the '82s have those two idiot lights, but my '85 GSL-SE does.

And, where was the smell coming from? Did you locate the source? A burning clutch smells like burnt paper. And, only if you were really bad at feathering a clutch and riding it, would you burn it up.

That's what i figured as well, and the smell was not burnt paper, but then again this isn't teh stock clutch, it got replaced about five years ago.

I only have one brake light, left bottom corner of the consle and it says 'BRAKE.' The only time I see it turn on is when I pull the emergency brake.

I thought for a second that maybe my E-brake was locking up so I engaged it and disengaged it a couple of times to see if that would help. It made no difference, This damned thing is driving me insane.

So, when RPM are between 1000 to 1500, the Parking Brake idiot light comes on? Have you done anything to the car before then that might've caused that? Sounds like a wiring problem. But, why only during that RPM band sounds odd. Probably a vibration problem.

Check out the wiring leading from your parking brake up to your console. Check out the online FSM wiring diagram to see where the wires lead to and go from there. It could be something as simple as a grounding problem.

FSM: http://www.wankel.net/~krwright/cars/rx7/manuals.html

Okay, after playing with the car a little, I found out that if you shit sometimes from 1st to 2nd or downshift, the light goes off...

Is this just like some pointlessly stupid engine brake light?

you are low on brake fluid.

yo demonspawn, check the BRAKEFLUID level. it has a sensor that when it is low turns the light on in the DASH............................ and yes JESUS loves even DEMONSPAWN

Well, he did say in his first post that he checked his brake fluid and it looked good.

Mine acted like that when it was low on fluid...double check it. Possibly the sensor for the fluid level is bad.

Rich

There is also a sensor under the park brake handle that could need adjusted. That, along with the sensor in the master cyl, both can cause the light to come on.

Thanks, I am gonna drop some extra fluid in the master cylinder later today and see how that runs.

BTW O.o Jesus owes me $5 from a previous poker game...

Okay I added some brake fluid and the problem seemed to go away...

My question now is...

Why only at near idle speeds? and why so intermitently if it was low?
Shouldn't the light just stay on to let me know its low?

If you have only a single brake warning light, it can come on for the parking brake, low fluid or a burnt out tail light. With your's coming on at low rpms, it may be an alt problem, but I would expect more than 1 warning light to come on.

I agree, both the alt idea and the more lights. Filling the brake fluid made it go away... but why was it so intermidant? Vibrations causing shifting fluid to register low? I know my car vibrates a bit when its that low and smooths out around 2500-3000rpms...

Its just so weird... I wanna know why it did that XD

When mine was doing this I decided it was just the vibrations causing the "float" in the master cylinder to move enough that the switch would flip between closed and open, causing the light to come on and go off. There is a magnetic switch at the bottom of the resevoir, and the float has a magnet on it that will close (or open...not sure which) the switch when the fluid gets low enough to trip the switch.

At least this is how I think it works.

Rich

The Why: Japanese wiring back then is screwy as hell. ;)