hand brake light always on

[ozzizere]

i have a red lite on my dash which looks like this(p).the p has a circle round it.it lights up when you engage the hand brake..well the other day i started the car up n i drove of but when i depredded the foot brake the light came on n stays on untill i turn of the car..i have checked n replaced the brake light switch,the hand brake light switch and the top of the brake resovoir sensor inc the lead which plugs into another plug underneath wear the cruise control is,with new items.the resivoir is full also..i cant seem to find out y this light remains on.does any one have any ideas????please????help???..lol..lol

 

[JonoTurbo]

That light grounds to the shifter area, on top of the transmission tunnel, check the ground line that runs there from the dash and make sure it's good.

 

[supraguy@aol]

It also is there to indicate when your brake fluid level is low. Cheeck that first.

 

[ozzizere]

the fluid is full..was the first thing i checked..

 

[ozzizere]

will check that tomorrow after work.thanx...

 

[supraguy@aol]

The other thing is the connection to the handle itself.
Pull up the ebrake boot, and you'll see the wire at the base of the handle.
It should take 30 seconds and no tools to check.

 

[NashMan]

there is littl plasitc trigger on the ebrake base
if broken it will all way's stay on

have fun

 

[Poodles]

well, it came on when you hit your brakes... so it's gotta be something related to the fluid level or the float sticking, ect..

 

[gaijin09]

the fluid is full..was the first thing i checked..

disconnect the reservor cap wiring. and check without the cap it's can be a switch in the cap...

 

[ozzizere]

i have disconected the fluid resrvoir bit the light is still on..it gets brighter when i pull up the hand brake n sometimes the light will only come on after 2 or 3 pumps of the brake pedal n sumtimes it only takes one pump..i can start car n take off the hand brake n drive the car n only weni depress the foot brake once or twice the light will come on????

 

[Jaguar_5]

This sounds random, but iirc, before my alternator died, this same thing happened, until more random lights on the dash came on and the car started to die below 2.5k rpm's

 

[3p141592654]

Here's the wiring diagram for the circuit.
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TEWD/MK3/manual.aspx?Section=Main&Page=136

Its a very simple circuit. Power goes to the bulb in the combination meter, and the other side of the bulb goes to two switches. One is the handbrake, and the other is the reservoir level switch. Either switch grounds the wire to complete the circuit and turn the bulb on.

Since putting the handbrake on makes the bulb brighter, we can assume that the hand brake circuit is fine. The bulb goes brighter because the two switches are in parallel and reduces the overall circuit resistance when it closes.

So the problem is in the reservoir circuit. Normally, disconnecting the level switch should make the bulb always go out. The fact that it does not, indicates a short in the wire somewhere between junction box #3 (the combi-meter) and the fluid switch connector.

You can see that there are number of places on the wire where you can debug.

Remove the left kick panel. You will find connectors 1F and 1B on J/B#1 (see link). You should see a black wire on pin 8 of 1F, and pin 11 of 1B.

http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TEWD/MK3/manual.aspx?Section=Main&Page=16

Pull off the connectors 1B and see if your light goes off. If it does then the short is from the J/B to the sensor.

If the light is still on pull off 1F. If the light goes off the short is in the J/B.
If the light is still on then the short is from the J/B to the combi-meter.

 

[jetjock]

Nice job 3p.