My car sat for about a month... no warning lights on whatsoever, but now when I start the vehicle, the e-brake light on the dash indicating it's engaged is on? Car rolls fine with parking brake down, but has very little stopping power even at a 5mph roll when pulled up.

Ideas? Why WOULD the light all of a sudden turn on and not turn off when my parking brakes put down?

Also, before my car was parked, my brakes were acting up... They had lots of stopping power, but with slow applied pressure, they'd fall out and i'd need to lift and restep. Now, after the cars sat, there's hardly no braking power whatsoever unless I Fred Flinstone it, and even that's scary. Would this be a simple brake master cylinder replacement? Are these symptoms of a bad part? What does a brake booster do? Could it be possible that my brake lines just need to be bled? What are the symptoms of that? Thanks!! Sorry for all the questions but i'm a complete NOOB.

Thanks for any input!!

 

Parking brake is strictly mechanical.It sounds like your master cylinder is bypassing(worn out) internally,but that wouldnt effect the parking brake.Check your brake fluid level,if its low from a leaking MC,then the light will come on to warn you.

If you have discs in the rear,the parking brake is self adjusting,as disc brake are self adjusting.But,discs dont make good parking brakes,so theres not going to be a lot of stopping power,even in the best conditions.They are adequate to hold the car,but not great for stopping.
Drums make good parking brakes because of the their more mechanical nature and larger friction area.But if the shoes are out of adjustment, then the parking brake will have a lot of slop in the "pull stroke" and you wont get much stopping force.
I recommend you check the adjustment in the rear drums first(if you have them) and whether you have drums or discs in back,you can pull a few interior trim pieces and check the parking brake light switch and the interior parking brake cable adjustment.Both are right there on the Ebrake handle and are pretty simple to check/adjust.

 

First thing you want to do is check the brake fluid level in the master cylinder. If it is leaking the light can come on if you have low fluid. If the pedal is spongy and catches only near the floor this indicates you have air in your brake lines. I would start by bleeding your brake lines (you start from the furthest away from the master cylinder to the closest). Check to see if there is any sign of paint flaking off your brake booster where the master cylinder is bolted on. This is a indication your brake booster is leaking, brake fluid eats paint away.

The brake booster does not have anything to do with your symptoms. Its purpose is to take engine vacuum use it against atmospheric pressure in order to help you apply the brakes. If the problem was booster related the pedal would be incredibly stiff (if you wanted to make extra sure that it isn't a booster problem, you can pump the pedal while the vehicle is off and the pedal should become very stiff. Than apply the brakes down and start the vehicle, the pedal should fall to the floor.)

Although it doesn't sound like the problem you are having, my car does something similar to this. I have found if my key is backed off (in the ignition), that the warning light will shut off. Also I found that my CD player wouldn't work when the car was on and backing the key off seemed to solve it. But this does not seem like the same problem as you are having...