Hello again. The beast is acting up on me again. I wish I could go more than a month or two without a major problem with this car.

Driving today, about 40 mph, brake light comes on, then goes out after about 10 to 20 seconds.

Now, when I drive, I don't see the light on. However, in park, if I pump the pedal, after 3 to 5 times it comes on. Then after 10 or 20 seconds it goes out. I'm going to top up the fluid, but it is above the minimum line, and the fluid level doesn't seem to be moving as far as I can tell.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

I realised I should have mentioned that I notice no difference in the behaviour of the brakes, including when the light is on. The pedal has always been pretty soft, and I get the feeling the car is underpowered on the electrical side of things as stearing and brakes have always felt a little unresponsive and loagy when idling slow, especially when the car has just been started.

Thanks.

Since the pedal is "pretty soft", I would bleed the entire system as it sounds like you have a pocket of air somewhere in the lines. Make sure you start with the right rear, then left rear, right front and finally left front when bleeding the system. That should make your brake pedal a lot "harder" and possibly solve the brake light coming on. Just remember to refill the brake reservoir after you bleed each brake cylinder.

If regular brakes, check the e-brake switch. If a Teves ABS, it may be a sign that you need a new accumulator. Is the light red or yellow ?

as padgett said, if your car is a SSE model it has the teves abs system unless its a 91 then its different.

if it has the teves system and the light is coming on, it more than likely means that the accumulator is loosing pressure and its time for a new one. its a fairly simple replacement really. the accumulator is the black cartoon bomb looking thing by the brake fluid resivoir under the hood.

Sorry, I didn't think to mention make and type of breaks. I forgot about the fancier models. There is no ABS and the light is red.

When you say to check the e-brake switch, what exactly do you mean? The first thing I thought of was to pull the release, hard, several times. It makes no difference. I've used the e-brake exactly once since I've owned it, and that was a couple of weeks ago. I did consider that maybe something has stuck somewhere.

Is there an electronic switch somewhere that might be the problem?

Thanks for the help everyone.

there is a switch on the e-brake pedal that will trigger the warning light.


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I am having the same type of issue on my car. Sometimes the brake light comes on and the anoyying ding to accompany it but then goes out after about 10-30 sec. Sometimes it doesn't come on till I hit 25-30 mph. But it'* getting really annoying. Any suggestions for my year and model?

Sorry I wasn't paying attention but has been done.