Well I was driving to the bank, and all of a sudden I see the brake icon in my cluster, first thing I did was check to see if my e-brake was on, it wasnt, I even pulled it and put it back down, light stayed on. I knew my brakes were bad but I didnt think I would get a light for it. Is this really a problem with my brakes or something else? I was already gonna change my brakes tomorrow, a friend told me this could be a sign of my alternator calling the quits, what do you all think? Let me know thanks!

 

Check your brake fluid level.

 

Yes indeed, it most certainly can be a sign that the Alt is going bad. If you have pep boys or autozone near by, get it checked out ASAP. I had the same thing. I was never left stranded, but as soon as I replaced the Alt, the brake light went away.

 

brake fluid.

 

I checked the brake fluid, for all of you that know, the container has a max and min level point, the fluid is not below min, but its just around there, it was far from teh max level, I think I should put more fluid in, hopefully that will take away the brake light.

 

You may have a leak in the system. A bolt on my front caliper was not tight. My brake fluid was at the normal level when my light stayed on. The light can come on if pressure in the system is low as well. I had the bolt tightened and the light went off.

 

i drove to school and the light went away, it seems to only come on when the car hasnt been turned on for a couple of hours (cold start)

 

I would most definately tip your Brake fluid level off to just below max. I had this problem this week, my fluid was low. Added some fluid fixed it immediately.

 

How about a bad e-brake switch ?

 

Easiest thing to do is top off the fluid. That fixed mine. After that, check the alternator and play around with the ebrake switch (I believe you can get to it by taking out that cupholder). Usually, though, the brake fluid is all that it takes. But as you said, you do have worn brake pads which eats through the brake fluid faster, so those 2 could easily go hand in hand.