parking brake light staying on.

[conig]

subject sums it up all of a sudden my parking brake light is staying on.

it used to flicker on over bumps stay one for a second and then turn off but today it stayed on the whole way to work. the brake is all the way up appears to be disengaged as well.

any idea what would cause this its annoying to say the least.

 

[chriswells78]

Are you low on brake fluid?

 

[conig]

don't beleive so but I will check. I checked the fluids recently for a road trip(2 weeks ago).

hope its something that simple. I figured the sensor would have been on the petal to advise the light to come on.

 

[gsmaclean]

Are you low on brake fluid?

Agreed - probably low on brake fluid. If you had bothered to read your owners manual, it would tell you that.

 

[chriswells78]

don't beleive so but I will check. I checked the fluids recently for a road trip(2 weeks ago).

hope its something that simple. I figured the sensor would have been on the petal to advise the light to come on.

In some models (I can't be positive if yours works this way) as the pads wear and the calipers have to push out more, more fluid goes to them. This takes volume away from the reservoir making you have a low fluid reading. If this is the case, DO NOT ADD MORE FLUID. It's time to change the pads and the fluid will push back into the reservoir.

 

[shadowless127]

Mine does this periodically but only after i engage and then disengage the parking brake. Once it's disengaged I have to engage and disengage it again to get the light to go away.

It doesn't do this any other time and the message center always says my brake fluid level is ok. I even did a manual check on the brake fluid the first time I saw this happen because i rtfm but my levels were fine. Gotta get the system flushed and filled again anyway, hopefully that solves the problem otherwise I'm gonna have to hunt down a bad sensor.

Chriswells78, this is spot on. My 03 did the same thing. Was getting a chime and the brake light would come on if I had to get on the brakes hard. Changed the pads and no more issue.

 

[chriswells78]

You can't always rely on that message center. I have one in my LS and when the alternator went bad, it kept saying the charging system was OK.

 

[shadowless127]

You can't always rely on that message center. I have one in my LS and when the alternator went bad, it kept saying the charging system was OK.

That's why I manually checked it.

I've driven away from a gas station forgetting to put my gas cap in like 3 times and I've never EVER seen the "check gas cap" light or message