Easy recent fix on our 2001 Escort and most cars. If you haven't cleaned the car out for a while and this just happened, look on the floor for a blue disc of rubber. It'll be coin sized and a bit thicker.
The switch strikes the rubber piece, which pushes the switch plunger on release of the brake pedal, switching off the rear brake lights. They use rubber because metal onto the plastic of the switch plunger would wear it down quickly.
The switch is above the brake pedal, you'll probably see 2 of them. Left one is cruise control, right one is brake. What you should be looking at with this problem is a box with a long piece of plastic jutting out (that's the switch plunger) and a bare metal plate in front of it.
To fix, either take that rubber piece and superglue it on top of the metal piece. Or perhaps 2 pennies with electrical tape around and superglue/tape to secure. Best fix is a new rubber piece with its thin rubber middle piece that snapped and why the disc part fell on to the floor in the first case :)
Make sure to test the fix many times before driving, with a mirror/against a wall at night/person behind the car, to ensure nothing untoward happens when driving.
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Saturday, November 24th, 2012 AT 9:02 PM
