My car has been sitting a little while (couple months) with a leaking radiator and a misfire. So, after getting the battery charged back up an put in the car I notice that the brake lights are always on. Does anyone know what may be causing this? Thanks.

 

Did you turn off your headlights? lol. Ahem sorry.

Did you check fuses? Maybe a bad fuse, or relay? Possibly a bad or corroded ground. Longshot: Time Control Unit needs replacing.

 

maybe you need to bleed the brakes because of the extra air in the line, making your brake pedal not fully disengage...

 

Other than what Hadman said, did you check the little button that is behind the break pedal? Is it stuck down? Stop Lamp fuse good? Shift Lock fuse good? Check for corrosion on the tail light circuit boards? etc.

Brake Pedal depressed?

 

Yep, brake pedal was depressed and took a break to reflect on life.

 

check brake pedal return spring and such. sounds like the pedal is down jsut a bit or something. my stepmom had an old caravan that did that. whenever she got out of the car, she'd have to stick her foot under the pedal and pull it up to get the brake lights to go off. on her van, there was a return spring that was broken/weak/something that pulled the pedal back up. I don't know if the Max has one or not. I would think it does. check that.

also check to make sure no dash wiring has come loose and is stuck between the pedal and switch or anything.


Hectic.. OMFG!! dood, that sig graphic is almost 8mb! please remove it. took me 4 minutes to load on my home connection. not cool.

 

all 3 pedals have return springs. the springrates on the gas and brake are positive only, so they always push back. the clutch pedal's springrate looks like a hyperbola thingy (specifically y=-1/x) so past a certain point it pulls the pedal to the floor if you have no clutch pressure pushing back. i hated it so i got rid of that spring but my brake and gas pedals still have springs.

 

You could try pulling the brake light fuse out and see if the lights go out. If they don't, then there is some kind of short feeding power into the brake light circuit.

 

Same thing happened to me. It was a green little plastic stopper. It looks like a mentos and it is where the brake pedal bar hits when not pressed. There might be some pieces on the floor mats or there might still be a part where it goes.

 

yeah .. look for that lil bushing that goes on the brake pedal arm in front of the switch. If u unplug the switch,or even press the switch lights should go off. I just did one of these yesterday at work on a S13 240SX. U can still get em form the dealer.

I dunno y Nissan AND Honda made that instead of a solid metal piece like other manufacturers. I had to use a penny and duct tape on my friends EF Civic once for the same problem ...lol