I have a 03 x type manual and the brake light stays on, sometimes it goes off but mainly stays on. I've had the brakes checked, emergency brake included and the light still on. One friend says it could be the ABS module, but that light is not on, any suggestions on what else it could be.

Thanks.

 

Check the brake pedal switch, could be stuck.

 

First, it will not be the ABS system; it's unrelated.

Check fluid level in brake fluid reservoir. Check fluid level switch and microswitch on handbrake both work correctly. Check wiring to handbrake and fluid level switches for damage allowing an unwanted earth.

There are other more unlikely possible causes, but that list should eliminate the most likely causes (I think!)

Edit! I thought we were looking at the light on the instrument panel, but maybe you mean the brake lights at the back!

 

Sorry Astro I think you maybe right and I have read incorrectly.

 

The light is in the panel, the resovior is full,will check the brake wiring. I was also told it may be the wiring harness and would have to replace the whole harness

 

Burton, what I want you to try is getting under your steering wheel/dash and locating the brake pedal. Follow the pedal up until you reach where the hinge is. Up in that area, you will see where a switch makes contact with the metal arm of the brake pedal. First off, make sure the switch is mounted firmly and does not wiggle. There have been a few instances where the switch has started to work its way loose and simply pushing it back into its mount solved everything. See if that happen to fix your situation.

Next, unplug the electrical connector to that switch. Do the brake lights remain on? If no, then your problem is a bad brake pedal switch. If yes, then you have a wiring problem.

If it is a wiring problem, I ask a simple question, are the brake lights very bright like they should be or are they somewhat dimmer than they should be. if they are full intensity, then odds are you have a wiring short somewhere in the cabin of the car and you will need to hand over hand the wiring to see where the electrical issue is.

If the brake lights are dimmer than they should be, odds are you have a bulb that is not installed correctly/wrong style bulb. This is where I would tell you to remove the bulb housing from both of the rear taillights and lay them in the trunk of your car. Remove all the bulbs from both taillights. Is the 3rd brake light still lit? If yes, then physically unplug one taillight housing from the wiring harness. Did the 3rd brake light go out? If yes, then that bulb base is bad. If no, unplug the other and verify that the 3rd brake light goes out. This bulb base is bad.

Assuming both bulb bases are good and the 3rd brake light is out, start installing the bulbs one at a time, ensuring that the correct style bulb is located in each location. Start on 1 side and get all the bulbs in that one before you move on to the other. As you are installing them, check the bulb to make sure that it is completely off and not having a very low glow to the bulb. If the recently installed bulb has a low glow to it, that is where your problem lies. It is either a bad bulb or the wrong style bulb. Keep installing all the bulbs until you either get all the bulbs in or you find a problem.

Worst case, you can come down to my place. I am about an hour south of you and we can look at things together and get you back up and running in no time. I am down in California, MD.

 

When is a good day to come down, I work early mornings and get off at 9am, but off on sun/mon. I would like to get it check and see how much to fix, because I'm thinking about selling soon. The lights need to be fixed so I can pass va inspection. I haven't driven it in a few months and tags expire in august.

 

If you want to come down this Sunday, let me know. Send me a PM and I will send you my address. We can get this looked over and hopefully fix things.

 

 

Hi Docko,

Of the codes you are seeing, 4 are likely grouped together, but these would generally give a check engine light not an ABS light.:-
P0037 - HO2 sensor downstream Bank 1 sensor circuit reading low or no heater.
P0057 - HO2 sensor downstream Bank 2 sensor circuit reading low or no heater
P1646 - HO2 sensor upstream Bank 1 misreading or no heater.
P1647 - HO2 sensor upstream Bank 2 misreading or no heater.
Start by checking your two sensor heater fuses. F38 and F42 (both are 30amp fuses) in the power distribution fuse box.
Quick check of sensors - The sensors have 4 wires each, disconnect each sensor one by one and with a multi-meter you can measure the heater to see if it intact. Upstream sensors I think are around 5-6 ohms, downstream sensors I think around 2-3 ohms (there is a possibility I might have that backwards :-/ but upstream versus downstream do read differently)
Note: the sensors are the sockets and the loom is the plug, so you will be testing the sockets for two wires with low resistance between them.

P1637 - CAN bus error between ECM to ABS and TCCM, either open circuit comms or shorted CAN Bus wiring (usually yellow and green wiring between various modules). Worst case scenario is ECM issue.
Not sure if that will give you an ABS light, but if comms to ABS unit suppressed, then it is possible to get a light.
You will be checking that you have CAN wire continuity reaching each plug destination and also if between CAN wire pairs if there is a short (expect 60 - 120 ohms as a normal CAN resistance)

You are not getting an "C" codes, which might at this stage steer us away from looking at the ABS pump and modulators.

Have you downloaded the electrical schematic PDF for your car? (Schematic for the 2002 model covers your year as well)....it is about now that you probably want to make sure you get that so you can start to track the CAN Bus wiring linking around the various modules.

Tip: if you wife or mother have a sewing kit, go and 'borrow' a few pins out of it (4 at least) as you can insert those up alongside the wiring into any plug to get a convenient connection to the metal plug contact without releasing a plug. Just make sure your pins do not short against each other during your testing and measuring.