Help!

Help! No responses yet!

 

When I step on the brake, the instrument lights, climate control light, and radio light all come on.

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start with the 10$ switch, see what happens. the above tho makes no sense. Id just fast forward to a star scanner and see what the car thinks is going on.

 

I'm lost as some of those things don't affect one another. How does stepping in the brake turn on your lights as if you turned on parking light?

Have you recently done anything to the car? Did you jump start it?

 

Brake pedal activated dash lights



I just bought this car. It must have had a dead or disconnected battery as the radio code needed to be re-entered.

As far as how does stepping on the break turn on my dash lights, I don't know. That's why I posted it here. I suspect a short somewhere. I removed the center brake light assembly but had no change. I checked all the rear bulbs for corrosion but they were all squeaky clean.

I picked up a brake light switch today. I'll put it in this weekend I hope. I'm crossing my fingers that it's that simple.

 

Applying the brake will light up your dash lights "ASR / ABS / SRS" lights when you have a bad "stop light switch". Looks like you've already picked one up as they are only about $25 from the dealer.

Prior to install ensure you disconnect the negative cable from the battery. With the battery disconnected, preform the install, and then reconnect the battery. The cable should stay disconnected for at least 30 minutes. This will erase the internal cache from memory to include the error code.

While your down there, ensure the wires are intact and in good condition.

After the install if the lights still come on, then you will need to bring it to a shop to have them manually reset the code.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks Cool Name, but my "ASR / ABS / SRS" don't come on when the brake pedal is pressed. The instrument, radio, climate control, and ash tray lights do.

 

From experience: make sure the battery is good, check voltage with the engine off, during starting, and while idling.

You also might want to check out the ignition switch.

 

OK, two problems fixed. ASR and cruise now working.

The front and rear tires on the car were not the same size. The fronts are 245/45/18. The rears 275/35/18. The diameters are different enough that once the the wheels are spinning fast enough, the car senses they are not rotating at the same speed. I swapped the tires with my dads S500 to see if it would fix the ASR problem. I read that in another thread. Presto! All my ASR problems went away.

In addition, the cruise control wouldn't work above 45 mph before. Now it works at all speeds. Although it still doesn't work at all when the parking lights are on.

 

So now I try to tackle my instrument and radio lights coming on when I depress the brake pedal. As suggested in several threads, I replace the brake light switch.

Unfortunately not only did it not solve the problem, I now have the ASR/BAS light and the ABS light on the dash lit up.

Any suggestions as to what could have happened?

 

So now I try to tackle my dash lights coming on when I depress the brake pedal. As suggested in several threads, I replace the brake light switch.

Unfortunately not only did it not solve the problem, I now have the ASR/BAS light and the ABS light on the dash lit up.

Any suggestions as to what could have happened?

stop right there and get the codes read with a sds unit (or equivalent).

yes i have ideas and none of them are cheap ideas, so get it diagnosed properly.

 

1998 W140 S500

- When I step on the brake, the light bulb warning light on the dash lights up. When I release it it goes out.
- When I step on the brake, the instrument lights, climate control light, and radio light all come on.
- When I turn on the parking lights, the center brake light is lit. If I step on the brake it gets brighter.

This turned out to be the wrong bulb installed in the right rear tail/brake light causing the contacts to come together in the socket. This connected the tail and brake light circuits together when the brake pedal was pressed. (Thank You eddie a!)

I also changed out the brake light switch prior to finding the bulb problem. This was identified by many members. I do believe it was part of the problem as well (not positive) as my ASR/BAS light came on after replacing it. It also went out after correcting the improper tail/brake light bulb.

- The ASR light comes on and the car goes into limp mode when ASR is enabled. It runs fine when ASR switch is off.

This turned out to be different size tires installed on the front and rear of the car. The speed sensors identify the wheels turning at different speeds and thinks the wheel(s) are slipping since they are rotating at different speeds. The ASR wouldn't notice it until you are going fast enough for it to see the difference. In addition my cruise control wouldn't work above about 45 mph. This problem was cured by correcting the tire size issue as well. (Thank You Sinned420!)


Maybe both of these could be placed in a sticky somewhere?

Don