Hi,

92 Accord.

Sometimes when I start the car up the rear brake indicator on the dash lights up, brake lights still work though. If I turn the car off and start it back up the light goes out.

What is this light supposed to indicate?
What are some possible causes for the above behavior?

Thanks,
Scott

 

The bulb might have a break in the filament, you can pull the bulbs and flick them with your finger to see if you can make the filament come apart. The problem could also be a poor ground to the sensor, or the connectors in the socket have gotten flat and are't making good contact. Go for the simple stuff first.

 

they have a circuit designed to detect if brake lights are burnt out, its the little brown and black boxes mounted to the back of your tail lights... its very very very common for it to start to go bad and make the indicator light up, even though no bulbs are blown... ive never cared enough to try to fix it, but ive always figured replacing the boxes would be the cure... but others have tried that without success... so im not sure what dies, but i wouldnt worry about it.

youre talking about the one in the car diagram under the fuel/temp, not the ebrake light, right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cpmike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">youre talking about the one in the car diagram under the fuel/temp, not the ebrake light, right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks. Yeah, thats the one I am talking about.

I get a little mositure in the trunk so maybe its burnt out the circuit. I'll try cleaning them to see if that works.

 

That thing works by comparing the current draw from side-to-side. If one of your brake light bulbs has dirty/corroded contacts, it might light up but it draws the wrong current. Having the wrong wattage bulb would also set that warning off. That detector is probably more sensitive than it needs to be. Some people have eventually replaced all the bulbs just so they all match.