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After 21 years of ownership, this is the first I've ever had a lighting issue.
Left the gym last night, notice a light reflection from the back of my car. Got closer and realize it was the brake lights that was on. I press the brake pedal a few times to see if was a stuck switch and nothing, lights are still on
I said screw it, I'll drive home with the hazards on. Got in the car, turn on the headlights and no dash lights.
Got home parked the car and disconnected the battery cable. Has anyone every experience this before?
Have you maybe tried checking the boards in the tail lights for any corrosion or bad connection. I seem to remember hearing that they can cause some havoc similar to what your describing.
Have you maybe tried checking the boards in the tail lights for any corrosion or bad connection. I seem to remember hearing that they can cause some havoc similar to what your describing.
I just unplugged one tail light harness at the time and no change. The brakes lights still stayed on
Check if the grommet on the brake pedal switch came off. They deteriorate and come off in age. That's what happened to me when I saw mine with the brake lights always on.
It is definitely the grommet on the pedal. Nissan still sells it, like $3. You should change the one for the cruise control as well, it uses the same one.
The brake light being on may have overheated the sockets and caused a short. I actually replaced the contacts in the metal housing because over the years they over heat and melt resulting in poor connection. Autozone sells the replacement internals. I seem remember modifying them slightly to fit. Good luck.
Omg, it's definitely the grommet. I found pieces of the grommet on the carpet, looked up under the dash and nothing, grommets missing.
What's interesting, I remember seeing pieces of the hard rubber on the carpet several months ago and I was wondering were they came from. I figure maybe they got stuck in the soles of my boot and I didn't give it another thought. And this was right about the time my cruise control stop working. I just said screw it, I'll live with cruise control. Would would have thought to look up under the dash, LoL
You should replace all of those grommets while you're at it. If one is broken, the others are on the way out.
Maybe you don't have as many since you're an auto, but the manual has several. A year or two ago I just bit the bullet and replaced them all at once on both of my VE's.
The taillight sockets burning up is annoying and common as well. I've been through it twice now in the past 7 or 8 years on my blue VE. The first time I bought entirely new socket housings from Nissan and those just burned up within a few years. This last time I replaced just the sockets themselves with some Dormans or whatever I bought at a parts store.
You should replace all of those grommets while you're at it. If one is broken, the others are on the way out.
Maybe you don't have as many since you're an auto, but the manual has several. A year or two ago I just bit the bullet and replaced them all at once on both of my VE's.
The taillight sockets burning up is annoying and common as well. I've been through it twice now in the past 7 or 8 years on my blue VE. The first time I bought entirely new socket housings from Nissan and those just burned up within a few years. This last time I replaced just the sockets themselves with some Dormans or whatever I bought at a parts store.
Yes, the auto's have two on one pedal. Brake light and cruise switch. I bought two grommets from the dealer this morning. I figured if the 1st set lasted 24 years, I should be good for at least another 20 years
Yes, our the taillight socket assembly is annoying. From the occasional loose ground screw, to the contact points melting/corroding, to the plastic housing getting brittle and cracking.
As I imagine, this is not a simple pop grommet in kinda job. I just tried today. The brake light/cruise control switch and steering column support brackets are in the way.
The correct way is probably to lower the steering column. I can't remember what it took to lower the colunm (I did it once when I took the dash out to change the heater core) but if it's involve to lower the column, I will be cutting the steering column support bracket.
What appeared to looked like it was going to be a pain in the butt repair due to limited space, turned out to be a lot easier than I expected.
Once I lowered the steering column, bent a bracket out the way and used a piece of wood to keep the brake pedal down, I was able to pop in the new grommets with the aide of a needle nose pliers/vise grip.
My intent was not to remove the brake light or cruise control switch so I wouldn't have to re-adjust them and I was able to keep them in
The second pic shows one of the steering column bracket I bent out the way. Luckliy it's thin gauge sheet metal
This just happened to me aswell! Parked the car in the day and later at night i was going to leave somewhere until i noticed my brake lights were on,it drove me crazy for two days! Until i did a DIY fix with double tape and a small sturdy piece of plastic,the problem is now solved,to my surprise the car still turned on even when it was left with the Brake lights on for 4+ hours!
