Brake Light Circuit Warning

[james39]

What causes the computer display to intermittently flash "Brake Light Circuit Warning Check Owner's Manual"

Bently manual doesn't address this. Any help?

James39

[Wayne 962]

What year is your car? This can be caused by a number of things, but most common is a failure of the brake pedal switch. The early cars did not give this message when the switch failed, but the later ones did. Here's the article on the switch replacement:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-Brake_Switch/E36-Brake_Switch.htm

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Here's the link to the part in our catalog:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/ksearch/PEL_search.cgi?command=show_part_page&please_wait=N&make=POR&model=BE36&section=Ppedal&page=1&bookmark=1&part_number=61-31-8-360-417-M64

-Wayne

[Jeron]

Almost always the brake pedal switch, assuming it's an E36.

[supertack]

Most definitely the switch if all your rear lamps light. I had to change mine out last week. Pretty simple, & not very costly.

A Couple points on the change. First, to get the old one out you basically have to destroy it by prying it out with a pliers. I had to break mine into a thousand pieces. Second & most importantly, make sure you slide the red collar of the switch forward, & hold down the brake pedal (with your hand) before trying to snap the new one in. The switch is engineered in such a way that it's self locking with the red collar in place. If you don't depress the break pedal, the collar will slide back, & you won't be able to snap the switch into place no matter how much force you use.

[james39]

My car is a 95 325iC. Checked brake lights last evening. Brake lights work. Still think the switch is causing the "Brake Light Circuit Warning"?

[Wayne 962]

Originally posted by james39
My car is a 95 325iC. Checked brake lights last evening. Brake lights work. Still think the switch is causing the "Brake Light Circuit Warning"?

Yes, I think (not sure) that there are two circuits inside this switch - a primary and a secondary. When one fails, it gives this message. I would bet lunch that this is the problem...

-Wayne

[Mr Hugo]

Originally posted by james39
What causes the computer display to intermittently flash "Brake Light Circuit Warning Check Owner's Manual"

Bently manual doesn't address this. Any help?

James39

Hi james well this has happened to me a few times last week
all the light were OK, so I took all the bulb holders out to check for corrosion and they looked fine, when I put them all back the problem was fixed. Have done a couple of hundread miles since then on country roads.