brake lights staying on

[FCguy]

A friend of mine has a 94' Accord DX (auto if it matter). His brake lights will not turn off. Its dark outside so I havent been able to do anything other than shake the pedal to see if it was just a stuck switch. No result. Pulled the battery terminals and let it sit. All that did is reset his head unit! Just wondering where we should look to start with. I have ideas about what it could be but I thought I might ask as it might be a common thing. THANKS!

[xbn83]

So when you took the battery out, the brake light should be off right?

[Member31410]

Low brake fluid?

[xbn83]

Wait, you said brake light, which brake light is it? Is it the one on the dash or the brake light on the tail lights? If it is the one on the tail light, check the brake switch:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/xbn83/brakeswitch.jpg

[FCguy]

tail lights. will give switch a check tomorrow morning. any idea how to test it with a multi-meter?

[SixSquared]

I was about to say, don't just rattle the pedal.. there's an electronic sensor up towards the top.. make sure it's snug. The same thing happened on my mom's tahoe the other day.. brake lights were on, cruise control wouldn't activate.. the sensor on the pedal had gotten knocked around and was loose, and the car "thought" the brakes were applied even though they weren't. GL!

[ash7]

Wait, you said brake light, which brake light is it? Is it the one on the dash or the brake light on the tail lights? If it is the one on the tail light, check the brake switch:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/xbn83/brakeswitch.jpg

reps!

-jonathan

[ash7]

tail lights. will give switch a check tomorrow morning. any idea how to test it with a multi-meter?

the brake light switch is an "active ground"

put your meter in "beep" mode and press one lead against each contact point on the switch. If it beeps, then you've got an issue. If the meter is quiet, and only beeps when you press the switch; time to move on to plan B.

Another way to test would be to just un plug it and see if the lights go out.

-jonathan

[noridetoolow]

If the Accord is like the Civic is ( and I had the SAME issue on a 88 Civic and 95 Civic ) the brake pedal has a tab coming off of it near the top. This tab pushes a PIN on an electronic switch ** IN ** turning off the brake lights. ( Its kind of backwards if you ask me ). What has happened to me twice is the TAB on the pedal has a plastic plug that breaks over time. It is clipped into a hole in the TAB on the brake pedal. Over time this piece of plastic will break ( and you may find an odd small ½" round plastic part in the floorboard ). Long story short, to fix this all you need is about a ½" to 3/4" long nut and bolt...about a 10mm I think will work. Put the bolt through the hole and put the nut on it. You dont want something with a big bolt head, I found a flatter rounded bolt works good and you want the bolt head to press the switch in when its mounted. I know this might be confusing, crawl under there and look at the pedal, if you see the switch that the pedal is supposed to push ** IN ** when released and a tab on the pedal with a hole in it that lines up with the switch then you will know thats what it is. Its pretty self explanatory and EASY to fix. If this is it, its not a bad switch or anything electrical, its just that stupid broken plastic tab.

REMINDER though that this is the way a Civic is built, I cannot say or verify if an Accord has the same functionality...but hey, we are talking about Honda right? SO MUCH of what they do follows the same functionality so you might be good.