My barakes have been gradually starting to go south on me and a week before I went on vacation the brake light came on and has not gone off since.

The brakes are pretty near the floor but I didn't have a chance to bleed them so I took a rental. The shoes are relatively new so I was thinking that I would bleed them tonight but I eas wondering about the E-brake light on the dash. Has this happened to anyone else?
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

if you dont have any petal due to low break fluid then the light will come on.

 

The light comes on when you are almost out of brake fluid. Mine did it to me once.

 

yeah, the light will come on due to low fluid. You should start by tracing brake lines and look for signs of moisture. Take off the drums and carefully pull the dust boot away from the wheel cylinders and make sure that they dont spill fluid out everywhere. Also look real good at the calipers and make sure that they too are not wet with fluid. And of course look carefully at the master cylinder to see if there is any moisture around there also.---------I am of course assuming that this is all after confirming that you really dont have sufficient fluid in the resevoir--------------

Please keep posted cause there are other spots I can tell you to look if you dont find it with these.
good luck

 

Thanks for the replies! Actually it seems that the brake fluid was low. I could still see some fluid in it but when I topped it off the light went out. I didn't think it was that sensetive to fluid level. I will inspect all the brakes this weekend when I bleed them, thanks again!

 

yeah my 93' did the same thing, i went to start it and my e-brake light came on, and it only goes off if i make sharp turns. i was thinking maybe there could be a loose wire of some sort. someone please let me know

 

Yours would probably be a fluid problem as well, because your ebrake light is the same light that tells you when you are running low on fluid.

 

if your pulling a sharp turn turns off the light then think about it.
what moves when you pull a turn?
the lever? Not likely.
Brake fluid? hell yeah. go check your fluid level, top it off and drive happy

 

i checked my brake fluid and its just fine, any other ideas you guys? lol

 

Is it near Maximum?

 

My level is between min and max and I don't turn nicely, still don't get no warning light. But as internetautomart says logic speaks for itself... it has to be something with fluid level, or at least the sensor that sees / feels the level. Don't know how that works though...

 

fill it up to just under maximum (and look for leaks to see if you have any). the brake light starts to come on with the fluid about halfway between max and min.

 

Same here.