Suspect the brake light switch is out-of-adjustment. If you can see the brake lights flashing while you're driving, (or the cruise control kicks out intermittently), hold the brake pedal up with your toes to see if that makes them stop flashing. If you're standing still in your driveway, observe how far you have to press the brake pedal before the brake lights turn on. You typically should need to push the pedal at least half an inch for the brake lights to turn on.
The common causes for over-sensitive brake lights are first, a self-adjusting switch that has over-adjusted itself, a loose bracket the switch is attached to, and on some cars, the plastic or rubber cap fell off the switch's plunger.
A self-adjusting switch is pushed down too far while you're holding the brake pedal down a little, then, when the pedal is released, it pushes the switch back to its correct adjustment. They only self-adjust that one way. Once they become over-adjusted that way, there is no way for them to go back except for you to do it manually.
Jul 5, 2015 at 3:43 PM
