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Stuck "BRAKE" sign on the dash

Discussion in 'Stop, Drop & Roll' started by eddy, Oct 1, 2008.

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    eddy Well-Known Member

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    Stuck "BRAKE" sign on the dash

    Ever since I got new brakes all around the car, the funky BRAKE light keeps turning on and off at random. Any idea whats going wrong?
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    Shifty SIdeways Noob

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    check your brake fluid
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    eddy Well-Known Member

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    Got a brand new master cylinder installed with new fluid.
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    Shifty SIdeways Noob

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    ahh, thats what mine was doing when my fluid was low so thats all the insight i can give lol
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    KrypticKarma ~2001 Corrizm~

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    You can always try bleeding the master to see if there is any air. Any pedal fading when coming to a stop? Might be some air pockets in the lines.


    All i can think of lol
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    wasabinuts2go BeeP BEEP!

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    mines was also low on brake fluid.
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    JordanInc ZZE110

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    eddy Well-Known Member

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    I'm gonna take it bak to the guy who installed the master cylinder and have him look at it. BTW, the fluid is full.
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    eddy Well-Known Member

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    OK no luck so far getting rid of the BRAKE light. Now it seems to stay on constantly. The fluid is full but I did notice that the pedal goes a lot deeper into the floor when I try to break. Also, when I break hard (sudden jamming at high speeds) I hear the rears go click click click till the car stops. What to do?
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    nyrican52884 Active Member

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    If the pedal goes down too far that sounds like there is air in the line. Since air is a compressible fluid the volume can get smaller without applying force to the brakes, that's why its going down to far. I would bleed and flush the fluid. I don't know about the rear
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    fishexpo101 Get Some

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    Do you know if the all the existing brake lines were bleed when the master cylinder was replaced? (I know, should be automatic, but you never know).

    Same with the master cylinder - it also should be bleed on its own as well. Does the car have ABS? Was the brake booster messed with at all?

    Do you notice the light coming on more often at a particular time i.e. at cold startup, after hard braking, after hard acceleration?

    Rear brakes making a clicking noise is not really normal - did the guy also adjust the rear brakes for some reason? If the shoes were pushed in (to take the drums off) and not adjusted properly, they could be still pushing the shoes outward and you are effectively not getting any braking from the rears. This should go away as the rears eventually adjust on their own, just make sure to set the parking brake and backup while braking helps set the self-adjuster back there.

    I'd go ahead and pull the wheels off of each corner and visually inspect the soft and hard lines, the calipers/wheel cylinders, bleeder nipples, and the any line unions - make sure there are no visible leaks or "wetting". If it all checks OK - then I would suspect a bum master cylinder or possibly an electrical bug. As far as I can tell - the brake lamp is only actuated by the connector on the side of the master cylinder. If the connector is not making good contact or shorting out somewhere, could be causing the BRAKE lamp to pop on. I'm more worried about the actual brake performance issues you are seeing. That sounds a lot like the system has air in the lines.

    My 2002 is also starting to do this - intermittent BRAKE lamp on the dash, usually after strong acceleration or braking, fluid is full and clean in the reservior, didn't change or touch any hard/soft lines, no unusual leaks, brakes seem to work OK. Just out of the blue, BRAKE lamp came on. I was planning to diagnosis the brakes this coming weekend - I'll post what I find out from my system.
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    eddy Well-Known Member

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    Wow plenty detail, I'm gonna start going through it one by one.
    EDIT 1 Succy breaking at cold startup verified and yes the light pops right on!
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    10R New Member

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    My car's light is now coming on under hard braking and hard acceleration. Did you diagnose your brakes?

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