OK, my wife got a sweet deal on a 1998 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan. Yeah, it's a little older and a little banged up, but runs fantastic. My only concern was, first time I saw it, the brake and abs lights were lit up on the dashboard. Ooops. Had it checked by a GM dealer. Nothing wrong with the brakes, nothing wrong with the abs, and they don't know why the dashboard lights are on. Long story short, it's since been checked by two independent mechanics AND the GM dealer. All say the same thing...your brakes are fine, the abs is fine, heck if I know why the dashboard light is on. Oh, it passed state inspection also, and the "brake" and "abs" lights were lit up during inspection, and are still lit on the dash.
How can I turn the fricking lights off, permanently? I'll probably never sell the van, just drive it into the ground, so don't have to worry about resale value. If the fix is "permanent" therefore, it's not a big deal. Those lights are annoying, and I'm afraid that they might distract me from a "real" warning light later, so I'd greatly prefer for them to be OFF.
Would prefer not to mess up anything else, JUST turn off the abs and brake lights on the dashboard. Is this possible? -Dave
You passed safety with failed brakes???!!!! What kind of moron did you find, seriously.
The ABS failure is one thing, but the brake failure light only means one thing, Park it Now, it is unsafe to drive.
I have had a Toronto Canada cop take my plates because he spotted the brake failure light on. I even had receipts for a brake job done the day before and was planning on getting the brakes bled properly to reset the failure light, but no go, it was tow truck time. That is just a heads up for you, cops don't take kindly to unsafe vehicles, especially failed brakes.
You really need to find a competent mechanic, not one of these idiot technicians that only know what a computer tells them to do.
The brake failure light on can be from a leak or a failed master cylinder which means one of these hits on the pedal isn't going to stop you. Make sure your emergency brake works and you know how to use it to stop yourself. An empty parking lot is a good place to learn this, it can be tricky.
I would pull the bulb or use some black tape over the ABS failure warning, but no way no how I would disable the brake failure warning light.
Mike, From the OPs post he says it's been checked and the brakes are working OK just the lights are ON.
I would suspect the wiring is shorted to ground and turning them on, or one of the switches is damaged. Shouldn't be a difficult repair, just grab a wiring diagram and follow the circuit.
"Mike Romain" wrote in message news:48b19dc3$0$5137$ snipped-for-privacy@unlimited.newshosting.com...
I thought for sure that the vehicle would fail, also. But, as I mentioned, the vehicle was thoroughly checked, and the ONLY thing that they could find wrong was that the ABS and brake lights were on. That is, they suspected a defect related to the indicators, that is that they should NOT be lit. Being that they were (naturally) suspicious about the brakes, they spent an extra hour going over the brakes really well (just the brakes, above and beyond the normal state inspection, and the wheels were already off), before they road-tested it, also. If you think they are idiots because they found nothing wrong with the brakes or the ABS, keep in mind that another independent mechanic (two of them in fact) and the GM dealer both checked the brakes in this thing. And it's been thoroughly road-tested, also. Multiple times. If there's anything wrong with the brakes, several mechanics (including dealer mechanics) are all "morons" in your opinion. Are they all incompetent? Possible, but not likely. If you yourself checked this thing, I doubt you'd find anything they missed. I've already gotten four professional opinions. At some point, you've got to LISTEN to the people who you are paying for their opinions. If they don't want to sell you wicked-expensive repairs, then gee, I guess they really couldn't find anything remotely wrong that they might use to suggest services to sell to me. I have no wish to drive an unsafe vehicle. I believe that this vehicle is safe. It drives like a dream. Stops on a dime, too.
OK, four professionals (including the dealer, btw) disagree with you. What do you know that they don't?
That I believe. I mean, the cop doesn't know that the idiot light is wrong. The cop has to assume that the idiot light is a sign of a problem. But then, that cop doesn't own this particular vehicle, and hasn't had four mechanics tell him that there's nothing wrong. (when all those mechanics had a strong monetary incentive to tell me otherwise)
I understand that. But I don't drive unsafe vehicles. I've PARKED vehicles that I was paid to drive, when I felt that they were unsafe to drive. Pissed off my employers pretty bad, but I will not drive a vehicle that is unsafe. Luckily, this minivan I'm writing about is not unsafe. I didn't mention this earlier (didn't think it was necessary), but the previous owners reported that the lights (brake and abs) had been on for the last ~two years that THEY owned the van. Like me, they had several mechanics check it out. Nobody could find anything wrong. Indicators have been on for about 35,000 miles or so (that I'm aware of). And it's passed more than one state inspection, with those lights on.
I've found competent mechanics (several, as I've mentioned) who have torn this thing to pieces trying to find something, ANYTHING wrong. Best bet at this point is that the damned indicators are simply wrong.
Neither of which is the case, apparently.
I doubt it. I've had a master cylinder go (on a different vehicle I owned), with no previous warning or idiot light. Not a good feeling. I'm not worried about it at all with this vehicle though.
Already taken care of. But again, the odds of my needing to know this are like slim and none.
Well at this point, if something REAL goes wrong with the brakes, the brake warning light won't be any help anyway. It's already lit, so how would I know that the next time it comes on, there is a real problem? (assuming the vehicle ever develops a real brake problem...after years of crying wolf, ha ha) The way I see it, I have nothing to lose, and am at no greater risk, if I disable the "brake" warning light. I am as reasonably certain as anybody CAN be that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the brakes right now. Could something go wrong in the future? Sure. But the brake light will be no help in that case, so it's probably better if I just disable the thing now (the brake light, that is) -Dave
You obviously have something wrong somewhere or the light would not be on. If you don't trust the people on this group, why did you post here with your problem?
Perhaps you could get one of your four competent technicians to yank out the warning bulb that reminds you of your vehicle's problem.........
Because I've asked mechanics to handle it for me, and even though they believe that the lights are simply defective, they won't touch the dash lights, for liability reasons. I understand this. I'm not afraid to get dirty, either. :)
Oh, and I'm going to trust the opinion of several mechanics who have actually examined the vehicle over the opinions of people who have never laid eyes on it. Wouldn't you?
There is no problem to remind me of. But, If I was a mechanic, I wouldn't yank that bulb out of someone else's vehicle, either. So I'm not surprised that I haven't found someone to do it for me, and I'm just trying to find out how to do it myself. -Dave
Could be. The thing is, disabling the light means that if the brakes DO fail in the future, you'll never know it. And if the light is on, it's on for a reason, and I wouldn't trust anyone's handwaving and saying that it's not important. I'd want to find out what is causing it.
This is quite possible. I'm surprised the dealer tech did not do this. If I were the owner, I'd be really pissed that he did not.
I hear you about the tests, but it is a pretty simple circuit. You have a failure switch that can be tested with a multimeter. If it is 'on', then a swap for a new switch is in order. If that one also goes into 'fail' mode, you have something triggering them.
The emergency brake can also trigger the switch if it isn't clicked all the way off or if it's switch is bad or stuck. Again a test with a multimeter will tell.
If the switches are indeed not bad, then you likely have a dash issue.
I would want to know.
I don't know if the Haynes Manual will give you a good enough wiring diagram, but it does for some vehicles. It isn't too expensive at least.
It is a pretty simple circuit. You have a failure switch that can be tested with a multimeter. If it is 'on', a new switch is in order. If that one also goes into 'fail' mode, something is triggering them.
The emergency brake can also trigger the switch if it isn't clicked all the way off or if it's switch is bad or stuck. Again a test with a multimeter will tell.
If the switches are indeed not bad, then you likely have a dash issue.
I don't know if the Haynes Manual will give you a good enough wiring diagram, but it does for some vehicles. It isn't too expensive at least. _________________________________________________________
Yes, check the emergency brake switch to be sure it is not defective, or continuously activated from mis-adjustment of the brake lever or switch bracket.
You may find a wiring diagram for your vehicle in automotive manuals in a local library. Copy the pages on the library copier and keep them for future troubleshooting.
I'm sure they're reluctant to DISCONNECT the dash lights, for obvious reasons. But they should certainly be willing to find out why they are defective, and fix them.
I'm surprised they let you out of the shop without signing a waver if you had a brake light on.
The thing is... it's probably a spurious indication. Almost certainly. but MAYBE it's not, and the consequences of it not being spurious are so severe that they involve pieces of your dismembered body being scattered over several miles of highway. So BECAUSE the consequences of brake failure are so severe, you damn well need to ASSURE yourself that it's a spurious indication. And the only way you can do that is by finding out what it exactly is that is causing the light to come on. Handwaving doesn't cut it.
The dealer told you this? Which dealer, because we all need to know so we can avoid the idiots working there.
Warning lights do not light themselves for no reason. You either have a system failure or an electrical problem. For the dealer to tell you "Oh, nothing is wrong. Just drive it" with two warning lights lit up tells me that whoever worked on your car is an idiot. It could be a short somewhere that is tripping the lights but the dealer should have checked for that when they 'worked' on your car.
I sure hope you didn't pay for the service visit because I can guarantee they didn't do a damn thing to investigate your problem.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.