JimmyL,
Did you try to pull up on the brake peddle? It's an easy way to rule out electronic issues. Mine was a simply mechanical adjustment. If you hear the click it would indicate the switch is good. No need to replace it.

 

Hello all, I am very disappointed to report that the Failsafe mode did return a half hour into a 1 hour drive. I was using the cruise control. If you review post #19 I now have to add it isn't a guaranteed fix however it does eliminate the brake switch as the problem, at least in my case. I do believe the brake switch needed adjusted and cleaned though anyway. So my time wasn't wasted.
On my return home I didn't use the Cruise control and alas no Failsafe. I'm back to square one. I will review this thread and start looking at the cruise control system.

 

Hmm, if you take a hard look at the trigger part of the switch, the part that is supposed to contact the rod on the brake pedal, that trigger has some kind of a 2-part sliding ratchet mechanism. You might want to make sure it is not completely collapsed and preventing contact of the switches. To be clear, I am talking about the white parts in the center-right side of the picture below. Should be fixable without redoing the job. Somehow, messing around with the pedal itself the way you are describing seems wrong. Just my thoughts.



Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

That was the problem on the Brake Light Switch I just replaced on my car. That 'Ratcheting' mechanism that is connected to the white 'lever' is the top most upper part of that white 'lever'switch. On my switch at the top, the 'lever' had collapsed/ratcheted to it's lowest point, and did not return with the rest of the 'white lever' when the brake pedal was released. I too did not think this was the problem, and at one point reached my fingers in and pulled that section back up even with the top of the green casing, which worked fine until I had to hit my brake pedal and come to a complete stop, which pushed the top part back all the way down, where it stayed.

I removed the green electronics from a new Brake Light Switch Assembly I had purchased and swapped them with the electronics on the original Brake Light Switch Bracket, still attached to the car. It took ~5 minutes, alone, and my Cruise Control has worked flawlessly ever since.