Stuck in park until override button pressed, brake lights not working?

Thanks Ken. The attached image shows what was added to my car. I misspoke when I said brake relay. I guess that is a brake light switch. Someone else actually installed it (after I bought the part) and they said they checked the fuses. I did not check myself. So maybe they made some kind of mistake. After work today I will try to check myself. Thanks for the link.

Hi Ken. The brake lights do not work. I took this car to the shop today. They tested it again with another brake light switch and that's not the problem they said. We still could not get the car out of park without using the override. They suggested I bring it back another day so that they can explore some more. 302,000 miles, I think I will cut my losses. I'll see if I can sell it to someone who may want to try to fix it.

(In a matter of days, I went from having two cars to basically having 0. When it rains it pours.)

Thanks for the help.

Hi Ken, thanks for staying with me on this. I received Amazon same day delivery for the automotive current / voltage tester. It worked when I tested it on my car battery and then I went to my fuse box under my hood. Other when I accidentally touched a screw, I couldn’t get it to light up on any fuse. I tried it with the engine off, with the engine on and with only the key turned to the start position.

Is there a third fuse box I don’t know about? I have attached pics of the under-hood fuse box and the one inside my driver side panel. Also, none of the fuses say #47, as you can see in the images. So I just not be in the right spot, or it is completely missing somehow.

Thanks for encouraging me.

PS: ever since I got the car back from the shop where they were checking the brake light switch, the check engine light has come on. I don’t even want to deal with that mental exhaustion right now. The detector box is missing (since the previous mobile mechanic tested in front of me). If anything gets worse as a result of that, I will start another ticket.

I checked the fuse and the power to it. The fuse looked fine (see picture). And the power to it showed 12.7. I replaced it anyway just in case. And I replaced the one next to it to the ABS. Still didn’t work.

I was in the AutoZone parking lot at the time and a store customer stopped by and asked if I had checked x, y, z (brake light switch, alternator, etc) � - things I had already checked and/or replaced. Then he said maybe it is the shift interlock solenoid. Something I have not checked. He said I would need a repair shop to get at that and he recommended one. Someone else wondered if all I need is a transmission fluid and filter change. “Sticky fears.” I do have a very small fluid leak and I add a little bit of transmission fluid about every two or three months. Takes me about three times before I go through a quart. So, I am really not adding much. The fluid still looks its regular red color on the dip stick. I don’t know if what I add is really making a difference or not. I was told there is a leak so this is what I do. But in the three years I have owned the car I do not think I have had a full transmission fluid change. Definitely not a flush.

Thanks

Hi Ken and team. It's been almost a year, but I ended up this month having to return to trying to fix this 2001 Acura TL brake light issue after my 2010 Nissan was totaled when the engine caught on fire. So, I took the Acura TL to an Acura dealer repair shop on Oct. 3. They insisted that the problem was the brake light switch even though I told them when I made the appointment that it was not the issue. I had even left the box from the previous purchase with them. And that the part had been replaced twice just in case the first was a bad part. They were certain I just needed an OEM part and that would fix the issue. They didn't hesitate. $350 later they said it didn't fix it and they then charged me another $175 diagnostic inspection to continue determining, even though I feel I should not pay for a 2nd diagnostic, especially when it would not have taken an hour to say it was the brake light switch, nor another hour to add a new brake light switch.

That aside, they are now saying it is the driver side, under dash Acura 38200-S0K-A01 Joint Box Assembly; a part that is discontinued. One is at a junkyard parts store for $70, but they said they can't guarantee a used part (the junkyard told me that the junkyard auto parts will guarantee it and I have 30 days to return it to them if it doesn't work.)

What are your thoughts as to if the Joint Box Assembly is the issue? Would other electricals in the car also not work if that were the case? I have no issue with anything else electrical in that car. Heated seats work, sunroof works, blinkers work, radio works, power windows work, regular lights work, power locks work, power seats work, horn works, alarm works, etc.

See attached PDF from their first inspection report that shows all the things that work.

They also said that now water is leaking in my car from overhead after the latest rains. I have never had a leak in that car, and it had rained recently before I took the car in and the car has lived on the driveway for 3 years. No issues with leaks until it's been 3 weeks on their lot. They also wanted to replace a torn air intake hose, (they charged $197.20 for that), before replacing the brake light switch. I didn't mind fixing the air hose, but only if the brake lights/parking gear would be fixed. That's when they still insisted it was the brake light switch and changing it would work but they felt it was better to fix the air intake hose first, so they did. I feel "had" / "taken" -- why would they not test a $50 fix they were charging me more than triple for before fixing what they were charging me $200 for? Now they say I should junk the car and buy a new one or try for the used joint box assembly that they don't know will work.

Since I'm now down two cars and can't afford a decent used car, I was hoping putting a small amount of repairs into this car would keep us going a few more months or longer. With their diagnostics and work they've done so far, I'm already out about $1,000 and still no working brake lights.

Is the joint box assembly worth pursuing or not in your opinion?

Thanks

Thank you, Ken. I appreciate it. I'll try to let you know if this works out (or not.)

Hi again, Ken. The part showed up and was installed. Below is what the dealer's repair shop sent me in an email today:
Tech did install the dash fuse box and we made progress. But sadly, when driving between 95 and 120 the is a vibration on the seat, unfortunately not fully fixed. We now have power to the fuse box going out, but the lighting is still not working. The true next steps which get a little scary When driving between 95 and 120 the is a vibration on the seat really likely not worth pursuing further is checking wiring through the whole entire vehicle from front to the trunk, pulling carpet and seating all the way to the trunk When driving between 95 and 120 the is a vibration on the seat then based off finding likely replacing the harness which is not available When driving between 95 and 120 the is a vibration on the seat not a used part situation.

Of course, at this point I just have to give up.

Out of curiosity, what else connects to that joint box assembly? Also, if there were any issues with the emergency brake on the floor and its connections, would that cause the brake light issue? My son told me that he used to use the e-brake a lot, parked on flat surfaces, and would sometimes forget and pull off before remembering to release that brake. Could that have caused something to get stuck and send a bad signal to the regular parking brake system?

Final question: Is there some kind of way to attach separate external brake lights, like the ones you'd connect to a car you're towing from another car? In this case, we'd connect to the same car, press the brake it will switch on the external extra brake lights?

Thanks again.

Thanks Ken. I left a message for the dealer repair folks to answer that question. I know last year I did test that fuse #47 after buying a test light from Amazon, per your suggestion, and it worked fine. (See my post from Dec 10, 2022, showing the test light illuminating.) I don't know if that means the joint box assembly should have been ok as well. (They sat on the driveway this whole year; all we did was move it from one side of the driveway to another periodically.)

I'll let you know if I hear something different from the repair guys. I may just stop in there on Saturday if I don't get a call today. Thanks, and enjoy the weekend.

Hi Ken, the repair shop just got back to me a few minutes ago with the following reply via email and they want to talk tomorrow:

Tech got the battery installed last week and checked all connections and function of the brake light sensor in the rear of the vehicle, which sadly is okay and not the issue. This leads to the worst and really only other scenario going on, which is the wiring.

Their suggestion in the rest of their email seems to be to stop further work/exploration on this and not do the wiring. I don't know if there are other options at this point. It's not work I can do myself. Thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ken. I believe they said that there is power to that wire. I don't know if that is the same wire, they are saying they would have to examine. It does not make sense to me for them to say they would have to pull up an entire length of a wire to find out where the issue is if the wire is working and everything else but this that is connected to that wire works.