Lights come on when I hit the brakes! WTF?!

LP Tuning · 05-02-2007, 04:18 AM

Well about 2 days ago the little grommet thingies that trip the brake lights decided to disintegrate leaving me with my brake lights stuck on. i decided to fix my burnt out tail light bulb in the process.

Now here is the kicker...today I was driving my car in a parking garage in school, i hit the brakes and all the dashlights come on as if I had turned on the headlamps!!

Tonight I jumped into my car to see if it was a fluke and with the car turned off in my driveway I hit the brakes and the damn lights came on as if I had put the parking lights on. It even made that annoying beeping sound when you leave the headlights on without the key in the ignition. When I took my foot off the brakes, the lights and noise turned off.

Does anyone know what is causing this?

93sr20de420 · 05-03-2007, 11:22 PM

could you prehaps in the process of fixing the tail lights shorted the gound circuit and made it hot??? sounds like a serious wiring hell issue

scortch99th · 05-03-2007, 11:46 PM

sounds like a short to power.... either in the switch or in the dash wiring.... time to do some voltage drop testing or take apart plastics to check for damages.

SE-R_TECH · 05-04-2007, 02:11 AM

Id bet you put in the wrong tail light bulb. Ive seen this in a few xterra's. They get a bulb replaced at pep-boys or some sh*t and next thing you know the dome lights and dash lights come on when ever you put on the brakes. Took me forever to figure it out the first time, but those circuits all share a comon ground so the wrong bulb sends power through the ground circuit illuminating the other lights.

SE-R_TECH · 05-04-2007, 02:13 AM

pull the new bulb out and see if it goes away

LP Tuning · 05-06-2007, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SE-R_TECH

pull the new bulb out and see if it goes away

Yeah I think this is the issue. Do you know if the outer tail light is supposed to be a single or dual filament bulb?

SrDexterSr · 05-13-2007, 06:38 PM

Outer is the dual one. On my SE the lights would light and my cruise control wouldn't work. She's all better now ***.