A small problem to keep your eye on- broken brake light switch.

kxcntry99 · May 28, 2004

OK so I drive over to my girlfriends house and we go out somewhere for the rest of the day, I drove over around 4 and came back around 7. I get in my car to go home and as soon as I open the door I see that the open door light is looking a little dim...OH SHAT im thinking. I go to start the car and sure enough the batt is dead. At thsi point I have no idea why the battery would be dead but anyway I need to get home, so I get a jump from my girlfriend and head home.

I get out of the car at my house and see this little blue plastic thing that looks like a button laying on the floor in front of the driver seat. I think nothing of it...as im walking up to my front door I see that all the brake lights are on!?!? The car is turned OFF at this point and my alarm is armed.

?!?!?!?! As it turns out that little blue button thing i found on my floor was a spacer between the brake pedal and the switch to turn on and off the brake lights. Talk about a stupid way to engineer the brakelights.

I am not sure if any other posts have been put up on this but I thought I should let everyone know since it is a pretty serious error and in only a matter of 3 hours I had killed my battery. I am not sure how to give it a good fix but I taped the spacer back on so I'll see how long that lasts.

paranoidTSi · May 28, 2004

I wouldn't consider this a engineering error, nor would I consider it a SERIOUS problem. Thanks for telling us anyway.

Eliminat0r · May 28, 2004

what, are you that noobish, its like that on almost all cars when you press the brake pedal a lil pin or whatever gets pusher in which turns on the brake lights some come off over time.

Randomrage · May 28, 2004

My god, I thought it was something serious that would kill me when I cranked the car up the 12,345th time or something! Sheesh, just super glue the thingy back on there.

UndergroundR32 · May 28, 2004

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AWDPetmitsu · May 28, 2004

Geezzzz, thanks for the heart attack.

kxcntry99 · May 28, 2004

Ok, I will be the first person to admit that maybe the title of my thread was over zealous but I had just figured out what was wrong and I was pissed about what happened....so I am sorry if I caused members alarm.

However, I do feel that this is a design error...I really don't see any reason for the need of a spacer...just move that little plate a quarter of an inch closer to the button and eliminate the need for some stupid spacer. As for me being "noobish" yes, this is my first DSM and yes I have only had it for 6 months but this is not my first car and not the first one I have worked on and I have never seen anything like a spacer in there before.

Again I am sorry for the alarm but I do feel justified in one trying to let all you guys out there know so you don't end up with a dead battery like mine and two, I do believe there could be a better design for this.

DoriftoTSi · May 28, 2004

It happens to any car, happened to my brothers Tbird. But nothing would turn on, and it wouldn't disengange out of park because the car didn't know the brake was pushed in. Hey it's a car, things break and that's not exactly a big safety error.

head_trauma911 · Sep 9, 2008

How would I install a new one for a 1997 eclipse GS my tail lights stayed on after the car was off so i pulled the fuse so i wouldn't drain battery

head_trauma911 · Sep 9, 2008

same thing just happened to me just like you described but i caught it before the battery died. i found the blue button thingy on the floor board too and diddn't know what to do with it so does it go on the arm towards the firewall or under the dash?

Locke · Sep 9, 2008

The switch is at the pedal - test it to be sure it is bad, as it could also be an electrical short.

voodoogsx · Oct 31, 2008

I ran into this lovely issue this week. A long day at work, almost everyone is gone form the parking lot and i'm two levels in the depths of hell basement parking. battery was completely dead....luckily I caught one of my coworkers before they left. My quick fix was using a bottle cap from a bottle of water to cover the button and give it enough surface to be pressed against.

As far as the switch goes, it appears to be an active low switch, or "on when the button is out" and off when the pedal is fully extended(up). Just wanted to throw this out as some people seem to have different ideas of how this switch works.

samnumba1 · Oct 31, 2008

mine did this i felt the thing shatter and pieces hit my foot as I was taking the corners a little to hard... I RTVed a piece of interior snap on things in there its perfect now

x5150 · Aug 7, 2009

anybody have a part number or name for that spacer thingy? I put a screw and a couple washers in there because that piece broke, it turned off the brake light but after putting a new battery in and the battery died in 2 days, I have a feeling maybe even though the brake light is off it may be draining power still.

Just asked a Mitsu dealer for this part, they told me it comes with the stop light switch which is $90. Can anyone else confirm/deny that?

afsdsm · Aug 7, 2009

This also happened to me when i first got my car. Its definitely a design flaw, most cars when the pedal is pushed it comes in contact with a button or switch. On our cars the button is always being pushed in, the lights are activated when the button is depressed. So when that crap little spacer brakes the pedal can't press the button back in far enough to make the lights go out.

x5150 · Aug 11, 2009

First dealer who told me the whole assembly was $90 was just way off. 2nd dealer didn't know either. I found the part and number on their computer though.

1995 Talon / Eclipse
Part # MB151298
Description: Stopper , gearshift
Price: $5.89

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A small problem to keep your eye on- broken brake light switch.

kxcntry99

paranoidTSi

Eliminat0r

Randomrage

UndergroundR32

AWDPetmitsu

kxcntry99

DoriftoTSi

head_trauma911

head_trauma911

Locke

N/T DSM Wiseman

voodoogsx

samnumba1

x5150

afsdsm

x5150

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