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Faint brake lights in Inst. panel

fataugie

By fataugie
in Ask A GM Technician

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fataugie Enthusiast

fataugie

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

My wife informed me the other day that when she got in our 2003 GMC 2500HD 4x4 that the brake light was faint, but on. She applied the emergency brake and it came on the way you'd expect (bright red), but when she released the brake, it was still faint. By the time she got home, it was working correctly. That was about a month ago. it hasn't resurfaced until yesterday.

 

Last night, I took the truck in to get a pizza and noticed the faint light. I also cycled the emerg. brake, and it worked as expeced, brake light got bright, released and went to faint red. Now for the very strange part. I was taking the dog for a mid-night pee break (3 AM) and for s**ts and giggles, I went over and looked at the dash and the light is still faintly lit! If nothing else, it's a parasitic drain. I don't even know how that's possible, but that's neither here nor there.

 

The only thing I know that's not 100% on the brakes is the rear passenger, the rotor is showing about 50% clean in the center so I think it may be hanging up. It did that once before a year or two ago. Tomorrow I'll pop the wheel off and take a look at the caliper and rotor and see if I see anything obvious.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

fataugie Enthusiast

fataugie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

:cheers:

 

Just a quick follow-up, it doesn't seem to be part of the ABS system screwing up...I pulled the ABS fuse and checked and the light is still dimly lit. The light being on is the one really stumping me...besides there's some sort of problem. I had a brake line go last year on another vehicle that caused me to crash into someone, so I'm pretty anal now when it comes to brakes.

 

've NEVER seen a brake light lit (faintly...that's the key point) all the time. There are no warning messages or other lights lit, so I have no idea what's causing this.

 

I'm going to bring it to AutoZone later today and see if there's any codes set.

GM-Tech Senior Enthusiast

GM-Tech

Posted
Posted

I'm thinking it's probably a cluster problem. Nothing in the calipers, pads, rotors, lines, etc., could cause this.

 

I don't know what kind of capabilities Autozone has, but I'm pretty sure they can only look at engine codes. If they have the capability to look at the IPC, that's where they need to go. Data in there will tell you if something is requesting the light to be on, which is highly unlikely because it'd be on full and not at all with the key off.

 

Yep, sounds more and more like a cluster problem to me.

  • 8 months later...
willys Enthusiast

willys

Posted
Posted

I am having this same problem in my 2004 Silvy and am wondering how the problem got resolved. I hope it is not a cluster problem. Tonight I am going to disconnect the battery for a couple of minutes and see what happens.

neil.

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