brake pedal basically turns on the light switch.
 

ok i have a problem and i have spend a couple hours trying to fix it now i'm tired cause i'm no where close to finding my problem.

here is what happens, and by the way this didn't happen when i got my car. the only thing i can think of is i replaced one brake light bulb. but i used the correct part #.

i open door and the beeping does not start.
i keep door open and press the brake pedal without the key in the ignition and that's when the light show happens.
the beeping starts just like it should when the door is open.
the dash lights turn on, the clock dims down to not be so bright like for driving at night. the cig lighter turns on. and all the other lights
on the outside the brake lights turn on like normal but on the front the side markers turn on and the turn signals but not the driving lights.

in other words the brake pedals turns on the first on position of the driving lights.

what's my problem i know somebody has run across this. but i already removed and replaced any bad fuses next to the pedals. where should i start next?

you will need a young priest and a old priest


so one day everything is fine, then you changed a light bulb, and now its poltergeist?
Maybe check if you pinched some wires back by the tailights, maybe something shorting out?

Check that you have the right bulb again. Then get an exorsist and a FSM.

So the car was fine, one day you replace the lightbulb and this started to happen immediatly after?

its not such a obscure bulb, a 1156 turn and a 1157 brake tail and stop

I have to say this is a new one on me, there is another thread where some dudes got so offended at a newer member because he could not find some rim on the internet, they should come in here and release some of that anger on this thread and try to solve this very odd problem

well the priest thing didn't work my car just puked and started doing a non sexy crab walk. :lol:

i'm hoping i just pinched some wires in the brake wires. but i am 100% sure i used the right bulb verified by someone on the forum and by icemarks faq section.

1990 MAZDA RX-7

High & low beam headlamp
H6054
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Parking light
1157
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Front turn signal
1157
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Rear turn signal
1156
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1157
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Stop light
1157
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1156
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Fog/Driving light
H3-55W

License plate
168
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Back up light
1156
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Front sidemarker
194
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Rear sidemarker
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158
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Map light
168
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Trunk/Cargo area
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Hi-beam indicator
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and more details i don't know if its related buy my warning buzzer doesn't normally work. i have redlined my car already and the buzzer did not turn on.

I think you have to redline pretty good for the buzzer no? I dont remember and my tach now swings like a lunatic inaccurately, I just go off the shift light but I thought the buzzer comes on when you REALLY redline

well i hit 9k in first gear and 8k in 2nd gear before i shifted. i think it goes on at like 8k normally not sure and my low coolant level goes on once in a while cause the pre owner cut it don't know why. but my coolant is full i check it before every drive.

OP, you are a fucking idiot and should not work on cars, let alone a lightbulb.

That's a joke, and kind of an inside one at that. Please do not get angry.


I agree though, that is a new one. It's got to be some kind of an electrical short. I would double check your brake wiring and make sure the wiring is in order. Maybe you pulled a wire loose when you had your hand back in there and it's shorting, I don't know. That's pretty strange.

You're sure that's the only thing you did eh?

See I can be nice to people also Rob, :wink:

Look at the wiring diagram for your car and focus on finding the connector which mates the front harness to the cluster harness. I believe on either side of this connector you will find the wires responsible for turning the brake lights, dash lights and turn signals etc. on. One explanation for your problem is somewhere along these wires they have lost their protective sheathing and are coming in contact with each other so when the brakes are applied these other wires are receiving voltage as well.

+4...or is it 5 by now?

Pull the trim panel(s) that were pulled the first time.
Remove the bulb you just installed.
Does Father Karras die?

Whether he does or not is actually irrelevant, I was just curious.

Does the carnival show end?

Thant would be interesting, wouldn't it?

@Hazard15301 dang i'm almost scared to reply lol

and yeah basicly i did an a/c delete and installed a manual rack removed p/s. installed my new shifter surround and boot. and cleaned the engine bay with a cue tip to get every nuke and crany. maybe the bulb is defective.

that has to be it. hopefully i don't have to tear my car apart just to find some loose wires. agh. wires is not my thing thats for sure. thanks alot.

Yea, well I'm just being a smart-ass because of a little argument that was going on in another thread that Rob was involved in. All in good fun, no big deal.

Anyway everyone is in agreement that it's a wiring problem, lol. It's just common sense to check where you were last screwing around.

I would have tried another bulb too. After 20+ years of different owners and different fixes for different problems, there's no telling what something simple could turn into. But keep us updated, I'm kinda intrigued about this'n.

+1 satch too.

You know, usually when I'm changing a brake light bulb I skip the steering rack, AC/PS delete, and shifter work and get right to hot bulb-on-socket action.

Clearly, I am a lazy f*ck.

Nah, that's just the way the OP rolls. When he changes his brake light bulb, he rewires the whole freaken car, THEN changes the bulb and then comes on the forum to ask why he is getting a christmas light show after his brake light change. We all need to follow his example.

+1 op sometimes gets carried away :suspect:

that fd was full of lazy :lol:

on a similar note I put some dressing on my tires and went to move the car and the transmission fell out

Must have been Italian dressing.

lol

i say either a short on the ground side of circuit or a not so looked at issue called a "floating ground" where a ground screw comes undone, it creates a really cool Christmas light show on any car

its a cross short, the wire got smashed or pinched against another wire/wires. so now power/ground is being distributed to a wire/wires it normally not during braking. you know the circuits being affected and you know the circuit that is making the problem.

wiring diagram+dmm= problem solved

wiring diagram + DMM will fix 99% of any wiring issue in any car, OP probably should invest in it later

Unplug the harness to the tailight you just put the bulb in, does it still happen?

If it does, try unplugging the CPU, if that doesn't stop it, plug the cpu back in and unplug the headlight switch.

It sounds like your brake light circuit is shorted to parking and dash light circuit somehow.

I have a feelin it's back at the tailight, or your harnessto the headlight switch could have fried.
If your harness is bad, your headlight switch could be too. Pele rebuilds headlight switches and will install a relay in a new harness so it won't fry.

THANKS thats the best advice i've gotten. i'm going to try this tomorrow. today i replaced the bulb again just incase it was bad. and i checked really closely to see if i accidentally stripped some wires but they are clean and in good condition.

also i'm ready for my emission testing and i'm tricking the air pump to be on all the time. but will this electrical issue that i'm having fail me at the smoq testing? when the light switch is turned to the first setting the brake problem is un-noticible since all the lights are on already.

The CPU is not a player. The Green wire that comes from the stop light switch is the catalyst. What do you have to say to that, Alex?

lol i'm a little confused about your response are you talking about the emission question or the actual issue.

The actual issue was associated around the brakes and that is what my response was related to. How would your emissions have anything to do with a wire which is part of the stop light circuit?

ok so i understand what you mean the cpu not causing this problem. what do you mean the green wire is catalyst?

and the smog center tried to fail my friends mustang for having tires to wide even though he was running the stock gt model which his car was. so i thought maybe they would make a deal out of this. because of safety or something.

The stop light switch has two wires connected to it where one is Green/White while the other is Green. The G/W wire "always" has voltage on it 24/7. When the pedal is depressed the voltage on the G/W wire then passes onto the Green wire and this is when you claim a light show ensues so the trigger (catalyst) is the Green wire as until it has voltage your problem doesn't present itself as you have explained as such.

The Green wire splits and goes to a number of other items besides the brake lights and they are the cruise control unit, ABS unit and the shiftlock actuator (auto transmission). From looking at your S5 wiring diagram the Green wire at these items does "not appear" to come in contact with the wires that turn on the dash lights, side markers etc.

after more searching I have found a thread were the guy was getting no power to the break lights or other lights when he turned the light switch on only when he would press the brake the break lights came on and nothing else. I know his problem is basically the oppisite of mine but it might be the same issue. He was told it could be a harness attached behind the switch or the light switch it's self.

Go back and take out the light bulb you put in...
In fact, take out all the lights in the tail lights...

Double check to make sure that 1156 bulbs are in 1156 sockets... (ONE contact on the bottom!)
Double check to make sure that 1157 bulbs are in 1157 sockets... (TWO contacts on the bottom!)

It sounds like you have a 1156 bulb (Reverse, turn signal) in a 1157 bulb socket. (Tail Marker/Brake)

If this is the case, then when you step on the brakes, the pedal will send power to the brake lights... The wrong bulb will send power back through the marker light circuit and make the interior lights come on.

The light switch has nothing to do with the brake lights, it doesn't provide power or in any way interact with the brake lights.

A couple of things you could do is to turn the headlight switch to the first position
and see if the brake lights turn on by themselves. Another thing you could do is to pull the Stop fuse and press on the brakes after the headlight switch has been turned to the first position and see if they (brake lights) turn on. There are also things you could do to narrow down the source of your problem as being a front harness problem or a rear harness problem. Lastly, you said your light show occured with the door open. Does it occur as well with the door closed?

come to think about it my rear right turn signal has always been just a little brighter then my left one. So maybe when I fixed the brake lights and completed the circuit it opened up the old problem with the turn signals having the wrong bulb. Ah why did I forget about that. I'll let you guys know if that fixed it. =)

thanks Pele!

the turn signal I mentioned being brighter well it turns out there was a red bulb in there, but no part #. So I replaced the light bulbs except the reverse lights (i forgot to buy them) and nothing problem still there. The harnes from the lights is also good and I took a look at the switch but it was cover in plastic. Oh and the problem keeps happening even with the light switch removed.

So for today I moved on to the new speedometer cable I bought :nod: and tricked the airpump to pump air into the cat all the time. And did some tunning on the idel screw on top of the intake. :=): ready for emision :)

it happens with the door open or closed and the beeping was because the door was open so basically it was just reminding me to turn my ligts off. Well I'll keep searching.

note: I haven't removed the p/s computer cause I'm not sure where it is under the dash. ( to much wires) just further info.

Satch is doing a great job but maybe something is being overlooked here.

Let me ask you this: Was the light burnt out when you got the car. or been that way for a long time and you finally changed it?

OR

Was the bulb working fine and then burnt out all of a sudden?


If the answer to the first question is yes your cpu is and has probably been f'ed up for awhile.

Yes to the second question means you have a serious new problem. Do what satch has posted already that's exactly how you troubleshoot this kind of problem.

On a side note I was once working on a transmission and the case wouldn't open even though there was nothing holding it together. I got mad scooped it up and threw it across my yard. It landed in the grass bounced twice and popped open with no damage. So what I'm thinking is you should throw your car across the yard. Hell you never know.

Also please don't tell me you put a 1156 bulb in a 1157 bulb socket or vise versa because then I'm going to kill myself. I now have a shotgun in my mouth awaiting your answer. I'll only remove it to take a piss I feel coming on.

You can't pee and threaten suicide at the same time?

Pussy.

How about turning the headlight switch to the first position as suggested and see if this triggers the brake lights to turn on. If the Green wire at the Stop light switch receives voltage when the pedal is depressed and this voltage is being passed onto other wires because they are possibly frayed then logic would dictate that this is not a one way street but more like a two way street such that if the voltage from the Green wire can share its voltage with other wires then the other wires can share its voltage with the Green wire. Make sense? This test would take all of five seconds to do.

I swear I'll do it. The shotgun was in the way while I was peeing so I had to set it on the counter.

Check those bulbs. Also sometimes the 1157 bulb will go in backwards on messed up sockets and cause it to half ass work. Take it out turn in 180 degrees and put it back.

I'm talking about when it sits diagonal in there.

Chuk Chuk.......Oh god spare me let it be an actual wiring problem not a bulb.

^omg it was the light bulb I had them reversed! Lol just kidding I checked the bulbs like 3 times already. And yes the brakes do turn on when brake is applied and switch is on. So do turn signals. The bulb was already out when I bought the car. And I replaced now that the build is done.

wrong bulbs: no
light switch: no
wires crossed near the bulb: no
tear and wear on harness near light switch: no
cpu: not tested
rear harness: not tested
front harness: not tested

I'll check more tomorrow since school and work won't be in the way. Thanks for everyones help.

you could have the bulb(s) in opposite. what i mean is when you insert the bulb into the socket, make sure that the tabs on the bulb match the inserts on the bulb holder(s). i have done this and it will make your dash lights come on.