Brake lights come on
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Brake lights come on
2004 Merc Mountaineer brake lights come on several minutes after engine is off. Have tried stepping on brake and several minutes alter lights still come on.
Nothing in the forums offers solution...need some help. Thanks.
Nothing in the forums offers solution...need some help. Thanks.
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Joined: Jan 2006
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Well, if it's anything like my 2002, the issue is not in the brake light switch.. at least on mine, the switch is NOT adjustable.. but the plug is real easy to reach.. while it's doing the brake light thing, unplug the connector, I'll bet the lights stay on.. if they don't, well, it's the switch.. cheap and easy to replace yourself. In my case, it was the Brake-Shift interlock unit in the steering column, pulling the brake light circuit to ground, and eventually destroying itself. When it happened on mine, FORD offered NO replacement for just the bad Brake-Shift interlock part, one had to replace the WHOLE steering column (really, I checked with 3 dealers and in Alldata)... I think that they've finally released a procedure and part to fix just the damaged part, much cheaper and easier.. I imagine they had a bunch of 'em go bad. Incidentally, before I finally figured out what was happening, it smoked one of my Brake Light switches (I did try that first), and finally went into a dead short, which popped the Brake light fuse intermittently, then immediately (as soon as I popped the fuse in). BTW, it's pretty exciting when you're going 75MPH down the highway w/ the cruise on, and it comes time to hit the brake (which normally disengages the cruise).. when that fuse blows (and you will be unaware of it when it happens), the cruise does not disengage immediately, it takes heavy pressure on the brake pedal to trigger the pressure switch in the Master Cylinder, which will then disengage the cruise. (yeah, the same switch, well, not exactly the same as the troublesome ones, that were setting F150s on fire).
Last edited by Exploder02; Apr 28, 2006 at 12:10 PM.
5th Wheeling
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 43
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Originally Posted by Exploder02
Well, if it's anything like my 2002, the issue is not in the brake light switch.. at least on mine, the switch is NOT adjustable.. but the plug is real easy to reach.. while it's doing the brake light thing, unplug the connector, I'll bet the lights stay on.. if they don't, well, it's the switch.. cheap and easy to replace yourself. In my case, it was the Brake-Shift interlock unit in the steering column, pulling the brake light circuit to ground, and eventually destroying itself. When it happened on mine, FORD offered NO replacement for just the bad Brake-Shift interlock part, one had to replace the WHOLE steering column (really, I checked with 3 dealers and in Alldata)... I think that they've finally released a procedure and part to fix just the damaged part, much cheaper and easier.. I imagine they had a bunch of 'em go bad. Incidentally, before I finally figured out what was happening, it smoked one of my Brake Light switches (I did try that first), and finally went into a dead short, which popped the Brake light fuse intermittently, then immediately (as soon as I popped the fuse in). BTW, it's pretty exciting when you're going 75MPH down the highway w/ the cruise on, and it comes time to hit the brake (which normally disengages the cruise).. when that fuse blows (and you will be unaware of it when it happens), the cruise does not disengage immediately, it takes heavy pressure on the brake pedal to trigger the pressure switch in the Master Cylinder, which will then disengage the cruise. (yeah, the same switch, well, not exactly the same as the troublesome ones, that were setting F150s on fire).
I have an early manufacturer 2002 Explorer and just had a similar problem. The brake lights stayed on so when I got home I disconnected the battery and then read this thread. I disconnected the brake light switch, reconnected the battery and the brake lights were off. I then disconnected the battery, reconnected the brake light switch and battery and the lights were still off. Could this be the early stage of either problem described above? Are there some other tests I can do to try and head off problems down the road.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
- Tom
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