Brake Help

[Jbulwer]

Hey guys,

I used to come here a lot when I first got my Mustang about 3 years ago and I've found that you all have always been friendly and helpful. But on the my reason for this post.

I have a 2003 GT and lately, I'm having a very hard time with my brakes. My brakes themselves work, but my brake lights wont work, I can't get the car out of park sometimes, and when I have the cruise control set and tap the brakes, it doesn't disengage. It's as if the car doesn't know that I'm hitting the brakes so it tries to override me. I took it to Advanced auto and they said it was most likely the brake switch but wanted almost $100 just to check...kinda hard to swallow for a poor college student. lol

Has anyone else ever had this problem before? How did you fix it? Approximate cost?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

-JB

 

[Waterdrake]

that does sound like a brake switch. might not be the switch failing though, could be a connection that came lose. maybe someone on here can come up with a picture to give ya an idea of what to look at. not much help, i know. good luck though

 

[Jbulwer]

Thank you. I just came back from looking at it. I'm not exactly sure what the brake switch looks like, but there was a unit at the top of my brake pedal and there was a wire that was broken. I'm guessing that this is it. What may be a big problem though is that it's broken at the end where it goes in. Any ideas?

 

[Jbulwer]

Well, that didn't work...

 

[n0v8or]

For safety reasons, there are two brake switches, and either should deactivate the cruise control. Both are mounted on the brake pedal assembly. One senses the position of the pedal lever and the wire colors are Green/Red-stripe and Red/Green-stripe. This switch also turns on the brake lights and (after a fuse) operates the shift interlock (which explains why you have trouble shifting out of Park).

The second switch senses pressure in the linkage that operates the master cylinder.
Wire colors are Green/Red-stripe and Orange. This switch is normally closed, so if a wire falls off, the cruise control will not engage. If your cruise control will not turn off with brake application, either you are not pressing the pedal hard enough, the pressure switch has failed, or someone has jumped it.

I agree with the brake position switch diagnosis. What color is the wire you thought was disconnected? How did you attempt to reconnect it?

 

[GDawg]

For safety reasons, there are two brake switches, and either should deactivate the cruise control. Both are mounted on the brake pedal assembly. One senses the position of the pedal lever and the wire colors are Green/Red-stripe and Red/Green-stripe. This switch also turns on the brake lights and (after a fuse) operates the shift interlock (which explains why you have trouble shifting out of Park).

The second switch senses pressure in the linkage that operates the master cylinder.
Wire colors are Green/Red-stripe and Orange. This switch is normally closed, so if a wire falls off, the cruise control will not engage. If your cruise control will not turn off with brake application, either you are not pressing the pedal hard enough, the pressure switch has failed, or someone has jumped it.

I agree with the brake position switch diagnosis. What color is the wire you thought was disconnected? How did you attempt to reconnect it?

Has anyone checked the fuse #33 (15A) for that circuit?