All of my rear lights are on, brakes, parking etc. I turned the headlights off and removed keys from ignition but can not get the lights to go off and it is draining my battery. I made sure the emergency brake was not engaged and that headlights were off completely. I reset everything by disconnecting the battery but all of the rear lights are still staying on. Any suggestions I am out of ideas to try. Its a 4rth generation 1997 maxima. Thank you for any help you can give me..

 

It might be a relay. When/what was happening to the car when this started?


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I'm thinking you have lost the brake light switch "bumper" that is on the brake pedal. Did you happen to notice a round, 3/8 inch plastic "button" on the floor under the brake pedal?

Don't bother checking relays because there are no relays used in the tail light or brake light operation.

 

Woops. Haha. Didn't know that. If the rubber stopper isn't missing, then the switch itself might need adjustment. I had to do that the other day with my clutch because cruise control wouldn't work.


Posted from Maxima.org App for Android

 

Sounds like you've got a short somewhere to me. I've never seen a Japanese import that didn't have an electrical issue at some point.

 

FIXED (and I've always loved/owned German, but only BMW)

And you 99.9% have a short in the lights switch, it's simply shorted in the ON position. Unless any fuses are blown, make sure you check all appropriate fuses to make sure they're all good. Then if fuses are good, unfortunately you have to take apart steering column. Check everything for any loose wires, any melted connections (a short can result in some melting of wires, especially around soldering points and connections). Test everything w/ multimeter, apply load to the switch and see if the lights go on/off.

Good luck getting her fixed!

 

If the light switch was at fault, all his lights would be on. This isn't the case.
Check the brake light switch by the pedal.