aFellow forum members,

This evening, after dinner, as I was searching for a Dog I happen to noticed that my 91 Accord's brake lights were on! I started the car up and then turned it back off to see if that might do the trick. No effect, so then I looked under the dash at the brake pedal and noticed that if the brake pedal traveled back just another 1/4" or so it would be enough for the induction sensor to see the pedal and deactivate the brake light. Funny thing is that even by pushing at the brake pedal by hand wouldn't cause the pedal to budge back any!
I've been reading that this may signify a bad brake booster. I don't know, but what I do know is that I haven't serviced any of my brakes since about 2003 when I bought the car used! My front brake pads have much padding left but the rear ones are getting thin. The power of driving conservative and braking with the engine! Yup, it's a stick!

Any insights would be appreciated.

Dave

 

Is the little rubber pad still on the pedal or did that fall off?
Brake light switch rests its plunger on a rubber snubber that is attached to the pedal, sometimes they harden up and fall off.

Did you verify it wasn't the switch itself that was hanging up and keeping the pedal down/leaving the lights on?
Possibly the plunger popped forward and got stuck? If you can depress it and turn off the lights then the plunger is most likely fine.

With the engine off, depress the pedal several times to bleed off the vacuum assist, take note on how the pedal feels. Smooth, crunchy, erratic.
Booster has a large spring inside it that would push the diaphragm back to its at rest position, if it broke there would still be a bit of play in the pedal.
If the diaphragm is pulling forward on it's own with the engine on then the brakes would start to drag a bit.
It's possible that the control valve(part that opens the rear part of the chamber to atmo for assist when the pedal is initially depressed) return spring broke of the control valve was damaged in some way that the control valve is stuck in the forward position.

 

Right on Mad Mike, I went looking around the car floor mat and sure enough your first guess was spot on...it was the rubber snubber! I'm glad it wasn't any of the other "more involved" possibilities you mentoned as well.

Since, I have all the broken parts of this rubber snubber I think I may measure how far it protruded and make something out of wood or metal to replace it. I wonder why it's rubberish/plastic to begin with? Why didn't the manufacturer use some protruding metal that's more durable? I bet it's a cost reason.

 

It's not uncommon to just be able to go down the parts store and get a replacement rubber stop, they are about $10.

 

Yeop.
Pad, Pedal Stopper
46505-SA5-000
It's ~$3 from the dealer, if they want more, tell them you want retail pricing, not matrix nonsense.
Order two if you have an MT car, clutch pedal uses the same stopper.
'91 model, possibly built in '90. Part itself is 30years old and constantly gets smacked.
It needs to be squishy/soft as the switch(~$50) needs to have a cushioned(dampened) landing from the pedal smacking it in the face for every braking event. If not the switch would get hammered, not to mention the clicking that would occur every-time the pedal was released from metal on metal contact would get old fairly fast.

 

Good points made, I didn't think about the repeated, cyclic events that happen so often and over such eternity! That pedal smacking that switch in the face, over and over and over... lol, good one Mad_Mike.

I found a plastic piece in the junk drawer and decided to try it. I thought that the original rubber snubber rested entirely on the depressible plastic piece of the brake pressure switch. But, now thinking about it some more, I think the reason for the tapered shape of the OEM rubber snubber is to press the swith some and then eventually the wider part of the rubber snubber tapper hits that outer surface that surrounds the switch's depressible plastic piece, thus reliving pressure from it as the brake pedal "smacks" back up upon foot release. That means I need to layer up rubber rings in the front part of the plastic piece I found, not behind it as I did (see photo below).

Ya it's messy cause I used white gorilla glue to keep the plastic piece from the junk drawer in place.

 

Well, the problem has been resolved. What should have been a 1 hour job turned into a 4 hour job because I missunderstood how the original OEM rubber snubber oriented itself on the brake pedal arm. I assumed that the pointed part is what contacted the brake pressure switch. Thus, I got the wrong measurements for the replacement DIY part I used, it was way too long (see photo in above previous post), causing my brake to still be engaged while the foot was off the pedal--which I only found out during a test drive. I was perplexed but with trial and error got it resolved. Later that night, I did some more in-depth online searching and realized my assumption that lead to all this headache to figure out: it's the flat part of the rubber snubber that contacts the pressure switch!

I do feel relieved now.

Yours truly,
Dave