hi all
when i hit the brakes when the dimmer switch is on but the headlights are off the instrument cluster, parking lights (signal lights), gear indicator light, center console lights, license plate lights all come on (in addition to the brake lights) but are maybe 1/4 the brightness and a bit flickery than when they are meant to come on (brake lights are reg brightness). could this be a bulb failure sensor problem? or something else like a grounding problem.

i had this problem before but it seemed to be fixed after i took it to the shop and they said they just tightened some grounds to fix a no start problem, but now it's happening again.
thx for reading

 

could be your "brake light switch"...and not your integrity sensor. This brake light switch is located behind the brake pedal shaft/column up a bit....it has a two connections at the back(trace them) and one in the front so when you push the brake pedal the metal shaft hits the black plastic switch to turn on the lights....there is certain amount of play between the button and the brake column and if it is too far off that may indicate that the switch button is not being fully engaged or the switch is faulty...?

10 dollars new or junk yard....this would be my cheapest start point....not too sure though but lets see if someone has more info on the glitch...

ps: dimer switch might be faulty...check it out too see the wiring behind it...some plastic removal is needed but not hard...

 

thanks for the suggestion, yea, it does seem like the brake switch power is somehow feeding or triggering the dimmer switch to be slightly on. the radio also dims everytime i brake.

 

sounds like a ground problem to me... some important grounds...

• either side of the relay panel on the left side of the engine compartment
• front right wheel housing
• under the carpet just forward/left of the gear shift lever (instrument panel grounds here)
• near the tail lights

I'd remove each of those grounds, and make sure its shiny metal to shiny metal. inspect the wires where they go into the ground lugs, if they've gotten too funky, might be time to snip, strip, and use new screw lugs properly crimped.. use just a minimal amount of deoxit gold on the contact surfaces, and put the screw on tightly.

if that doesn't fix it, then pull the instrument panel, make sure all the connectors fit securely, use a pink pencil eraser to clean the board edge metal fingers, again a tiny bit of deoxit gold on each connector, reassemble.

if that doesn't work, there's a soldered in fuse, and a voltage regulator on the back of the instrument panel that might need replacing.

 

btw.

bulb failure sensor problems almost always just mean the idiot light is on when it shouldn't be. otherwise, they are really reliable.

the sensor is a series of counter-wound coils around magnetic reed relays. if the current to the two lights in a pair isn't the same, then the difference energizes the relay which lights the dash light. short of the can being physically damaged, no failure mode would do what you say.

if I had a failure sensor that /was/ messed up, I'd likely open it up, gut it, and replace the coils with simple jumper wires at the plug pins. been thinking of doing that to my daughters car as the right rear running light wire failed a long time ago, and I spliced it to the left one so the idiot light is permanently lit. its that, or run a new right rear running light wire :-/

 

omg, it was the LED lower brake lights!
they weren't a problem for a long while...but i did get a bulb failure indicator light from the LED high mount one so had to change that to incandescent...now i guess they will all be incandescent...darn, i really liked them...why do they do that? geez

 

ah, the brake lights are balanced with the 3rd brake light, and are more sensitive to unbalances than the other pairs.