I had a recent problem with disintegrating brake stop pads, brake light on overnight and a resulting dead battery on my 2004 5AT. I plugged the hole with a small bolt to fix it, charged the battery and I now have working brake lights. The first time I moved the car I got to the bottom of the driveway and VDC. Slip and ABS lights came on and the brakes locked up. I got the car back in the garage and disconnected the battery to reset the computer.

Now when I start the car there's no warning lights, I can engage drive but it doesn't move because the brakes are on. If I try to move the car with more throttle it moves but detects a problem and the ABS, VDC and Slip lights come on. The other odd thing I notice is that the brake pedal used to drop an inch or so on starting the engine, it now stays firm.

The posts I read here point to the steering angle censor for the warning lights but this happens without touching the wheel and it hasn't been off in months. I did replace a lower control arm a couple of months ago and haven't had the alignment checked yet but I've driven it a few hundred miles since then without a problem.

Anyone got any ideas on where to start?

 

Check your wheel speed sensors, also you should be able to drive the vehicle under 10mph because the VDC system doesn't self-test until you hit that speed, you will hear the motor "whirring" for about 1 second when you hit 10mph the first time after starting the vehicle.

I suspect you have a seized up brake caliper, jack up the vehicle on both ends and spin the tires, one is probably locked up solid.

 

Ever fix this? Happened tonight, engine feels down on power but no problem going 50 mph. No CEL.

 

No progress so far, haven't had much time to spend on it. I did replace the bolts I'd used to "repair" the broken brake pads with the correct part so my setup is stock. On testing I found that the brake pedal now behaved normally and got no lights on starting the engine. Driving very slowly out of the garage was ok until I pressed the brake pedal and then all the lights came on.

As I understand it, the computer is getting a bad reading from a sensor, either the yaw sensor, steering angle sensor, an ABS wheel speed sensor, brake pedal position sensor or something else even low brake fluid or needing new pads. There doesn't seem to be a way for me to find out which sensor without a CONSULT II code reader and a trip to the dealer. For me this all started with the brake pedal pads disintegrating and it happens on pressing the brake pedal so it seems most likely it's something to do with that issue but there's a number of failure points that trigger the same warning lights. I might try pulling and cleaning the ABS sensors.

 

Turns out I didn't have the brake light switch correctly adjusted to the 0.75mm to 1.96mm clearance. Hard to see what's going on under the dash but went through the adjustment again and looks like the problem is solved, proper test drive tomorrow.

 

Hello, pretty late to reply but, when you mentioned that you adjusted 0.75 to 1.96mm, did you have to turn the switch to that adjustment? If not, then how? -Thank you

 

His last site activity was 8-8-18, probably no longer here.

 

It's been a while but if I remember correctly you rotate it counter clockwise 90 degrees then move the switch to the right clearance then rotate it back to lock it in place. Hope that helps.

 

Had the same issue and my mechanic did the above steps and works just fine. Charged me 1/2hr labor. ($35)

 

I had the same problem, the brake lights were on even with the car being off and the cars doors locked. I removed the brake switch to check for continuity, not seeing till later that the problem was the rubber stopper for the brake switch that had broken off and parts of it fell to the floor. I replaced the rubber stopper and that took care of the brake light being always on problem. I reinstalled the brake switch

by just pushing it back in and turning it 45 degrees to secure it. After starting the car, the ABS, Slip, and VDC lights were on and the brakes were locked and would not release. To install and adjust the brake switch properly, do the following below.

Pull the brake pedal all the way back towards you until it stops, insert the brake switch and make sure that the black threaded portion of the brake switch makes contact with the rubber stopper then turn 45 degrees to the right to secure it. The same should be done with the cruise control switch which is the lower one if it was take out. That took care of the problem for me. I hope this helps someone.

 

Correction. To install the cruise control switch, do not pull or push on the brake pedal, leave it alone, insert the cruise control switch and turn it 45 degrees clockwise to secure it.