e-brake always on
 

Hey guys,

So I finally drove my 7 after a few days of it just sitting. It runs fine, however the warning light for the handbrake is always on even if it is released. It kinda seems like it has less power, so I am thinking that it is not just the light, but maybe the brake got stuck. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Check your brake fluid - I bet it's low or empty.


-Ted

Drive it till they unstick.

X2

mine was just doing this. ended up being a bad caliper, but found it out to late. the piston in my caliper and my rotor are fubar'd, lol. currently working on getting new brakes put on, having fits with my new studs, lol. im hoping that replacing these parts that the warning light goes off. ill post results when i get it back together.

This happened to me before. Turned out it wasn't the e-brake at all, I had just put to much fluid in after I bled the brakes, so they were always dragging.

Thanks for the ideas guys, I'm going to check the brake fluid level when I get home.

Im having this same issue, i dont think it is the brake fluid. My lights were on before and after i filled it up. Although the lights, for a little while were intermittent. Now they are on all the time. Ill be replacing my brake system here soon anyways and hopefully that will solve the issue.

Your parking brake warning light is not connected in any way to the calipers or fluid, only to the parking brake lever itself, so it cannot warn you of low fluid or sticking pistons- it doesn't know or care. All it does know is the position of the lever itself.

Remove the cover from the parking brake handle and see that the switch is making contact when the lever is in the OFF position (all the way down).

The switch is grounded.

sooooooooo that's why whenever the fluid is low in my resovoir the brake light comes on?

Uh, WRONG.

The PARKING BRAKE warning light *IS* connected to the brake fluid level sensor in the brake fluid reservior.
Check the FSM for the wiring diagrams.
It's even described in your owners manual if you have one.


-Ted

Wow, for as many posts as you have you should know that ALL cars have that feature and you should know not to talk about something if you don't know about it.

Mea culpa, mea cupla, mea maximum culpa.
I was wrong, I'm sorry.