Amber light & Cruise Not Available Message
 

Driving home yesterday, got the Amber Light and cruise not available message. Pulled off roadway, shut down engine and removed key, plus opened door and closed it. Started the car and no light or message. No message or light rest of way home plus cruise worked again. SEARCH revealed it could be the micro switches in the brake light switch. Torque Pro showed no DTC's. I would like to repair it if I can locate a scrap unit or someone's old defective switch to practice on . PM me on Forums if you have an old switch that is repairable. Reasonable S&H cost will be refunded. Have the 2 switches ready to install .

The typical brake pedal switch failure indication is both "Check Rear Lights" and "Cruise Not Available" alternately displaying on the dashboard message center. Did you see both of these messages? If not, you may have a completely different issue....

No on rest of message. Only cruise n/a. Ran a scan with my other scanner that does P & C codes, nothing. Maybe like the DSC amber light that occurs infrequently, unable to determine cause. Cleaned all grounds, battery has 12.6v , disconnect,wiggle , reconnect related components, apparently an intermittant item.

I would not replace the brake pedal switch at this point. Your issue may have been a one-time ghost which you eliminated by cleaning the battery grounds. Keep driving and see if this same error returns....

But do keep those new brake pedal microswitches because sooner or later you will need them....

Hi kstevusa,

As you are probably aware, the brake switch has two circuits. One switch is the "Brake On/Off" side, which controls the brake lights and is connected to other systems such as adaptive damping. The other switch is for the "Cruise Control Cancel" circuit, which disables cruise when the brake pedal is depressed. If the problem is only on the latter circuit, you will get the "Cruise Not Available" warning lamp, but not the "Check Rear Lights" warning. Problems with either brake switch will usually trigger a Chassis diagnostic trouble code (C- prefix), which can't be read by Torque Pro, but you mentioned that your other scan tool can read C- codes.

It can be worth disconnecting the electrical connectors at the brake switch, cleaning them with zero-residue electronic contact cleaner spray, allowing them to dry, then fully re-seating them.

If your early 2003 has the Cruise Control master switch on the J-gate, that switch is in series with the cruise side of the brake switch, and I once was able to cure the same symptoms you describe by disconnecting that switch, cleaning its connectors and making sure they were fully seated. The curious thing was that the only DTC was for a fault with the "Stop Lamp Circuit," C1446, but the problem was looseness or contamination of the connector at the Cruise switch. It sits in a place where it is vulnerable to drink spills and dust accumulation.

If your 2003 does not have the Cruise switch on the J-gate, then the Cruise Control switch pack in the steering wheel is another suspect.

Cheers,

Don

Had the very same issue...driving along and then "Cruise not Avail" never had the brake lights message just the "Cruise" issue.
Lived with it for a while as it would always reset by ignition off wait 10secs & restart and all ok again until the next time, eventually it got worse
and occurred every trip out. The fix for me was NEW BATTERY its been 2yrs now and never came back!!

UPDATE: Made a 65 mile round trip this PM. No amber light or message. Perhaps it was an isolated occurrence. Hope, Hope!
BTY, Battery in 11 months old and AGM Bosch