Brake light comes on
 

My brake light comes on and goes off on a fairly regular basis. Today it was on when I left the house, then went off on my way to work. At lunch it was initially off, but came on when I went around a corner. Acceleration seems to affect it sometimes. Sometimes not. Any ideas? BTW, sometimes I have to add brake fluid.

Also the antilock brake light comes on sometimes too. Right now its off and it usually stays one way or the other for days or weeks. Dealer says I need a new antilock brake computer for 2500$. I think it may be connected with my other brake issue, but I've had mechanics tell me the two systems are entirely unrelated.

I'd check your brake cylinders. Usually, the light goes on when the car's low on brake fluid. I'd start from scratch and bleed your car with new fluid, then start looking for leaks...

Good luck.

You're talking about the brake light that comes on when you engage the parking brake, right? Theres a switch on it that you need to adjust a little bit - this is a common thing with 3rd gens and isn't related to your ABS light coming on.

Here's a quote from Troy Wilson's FAQ at http://www.k-rad.com/3genfaq

5.1.4 Hand brake light comes on while driving

The switch that controls the parking brake indicator light is located under the leather brake handle boot. Sometimes during acceleration the hand brake lever moves enough to activate the light. This problem can be fixed by building up the area of the handbrake that contacts the switch with a product like JB Weld.

As for your ABS light coming on, if it comes on and stays on for days at a time, you probably do have a problem with the ABS computer. If the ABS still works when the ABS light is on, I wouldn't sweat it much. Did you have the dealer actually test the ABS system or just explain the problem to them and they said you need a high dollar item? They have a tester for the ABS system that will say if there is a bad valve or anything on the system. Somewhere on the web there is a procedure for pulling the codes from the ABS light but I don't remember where it is at the moment.

Anyway, if you go to my site-technical info-service manuals-mitchell info-1993-brake section, you can see how to test the ABS system with their tester. There is also a wiring diagram for the ABS system, maybe you can measure the resistance of the wheel speed sensors and if three read one way and one reads differently, maybe you found a problem.

i had the same problem with the parking brake light. after checking every connection, there was only missing a little bit of brake fluid. It never did it again.

puma

The hand brake theory make sense - the light seems to be affected by hard acceleration and hard deceleration, like a switch might be. I was able to turn it on today by accelerating, and then turn it off again by getting on the brakes hard. When the light is on, moving the handbrake around has no effect, like i would expect if it was a handbrake switch issue. It might be good to investigate anyway, and my handbrake needs adjusting. Its at the end of its range right now, so maybe just tightening it up will help.

I just looked at my fluid level, and its midway between min and max. I could have sworn it was at max last time I looked at it, so could be a problem there. I'll top it off today and see about bleeding the system this weekend.

mine was also between min and max, trust me, put some fluid in there and get it up to max, acceleration makes it look like it is to min.

puma

Mine used to do that too. It would come on sometime when I would accelerate fast then I would push the e-brake handle down a little then it would turn off. I used to have a brake fluid leak too. I would have to constantly fill it up, then I noticed one of the brake lines was loose and it doesnt leak anymore.

Ok; I topped off the brake fluid reservoir, no more brake light. I'm thinking there must be a leak somewhere since I have to keep putting fluid in. RX-7 loving driver, where was your leak? I'm not sure where to start looking... I want to bleed the brakes to get new fluid in the whole system, so maybe I'll find something when I do that.

i told you that was it, why nobody listen to me?:D

puma