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my brake light on my gauges has been coming on randomly and ive made sure my ebrake is depressed all the way and I made sure my fluid level was OK too,which it was a tad low but refilling it didn't fix it..
it just randomly will come on and randomly turn off, I feel like it's not sensing that my ebrake level is completely depressed.
is there anything I can adjust or something to fix this or is it telling me my pads are getting low, which my rears I haven't checked in months but last time I did they were atleast 50%.
Hand Brake (E-Brake) and Brake Wear lights are different. Sometimes the brake wear sensor sometimes gets loose and starts to cause the wear light to come on and off. Right Rear and Left Front = location of the sensors
Parking Brake light, double check the switch at the base of the Hand Brake under the gator ...
Brake Pad Wearing light, double check the sensors ...
Hand Brake (E-Brake) and Brake Wear lights are different. Sometimes the brake wear sensor sometimes gets loose and starts to cause the wear light to come on and off. Right Rear and Left Front = location of the sensors
Parking Brake light, double check the switch at the base of the Hand Brake under the gator ...
Brake Pad Wearing light, double check the sensors ...
Motor On!
Was a loose front sensor , it had came out of its connector and was dangling down almost into my serpentine belt,Geez..that coulda been worse !
I am having a similar issue.... The red brake light on the dash illuminates randomly while driving. At first I check the hand brake... it's down for sure. I thought it was heat from the resonator affecting the wire or switch under the handbrake. Pulled up the gator and everything works fine with the handbrake switch and wire looks good.
Next I check the brake fluid level. It's good.
Now I'm about to check the brake pad sensor wires but they have been zipped tied up (off the calipers) for years. Maybe one has come loose?
Anything else I should check while I've got the car up?
Ok - while , this may not be directly related to your dashboard Brake Light problem. It was for me. I was baffled why my Volt gauge would go wonkiy and my hand brake light would suddenly illuminate (for no reason) while driving in traffic. Eventually the light would go out but then would come on again. The below solved my issues
Located left (driver side) just underneath the hood latch cable. Circled in red : is a thin, black, ceramic(?) "plate" or"ballast" with wires embedded in it leading to/from the wire harness.There is a bolt and nut securing it in place... the nut was missing.
Originally Posted by Here2Go
Well it wasn't a fluke.
Grounding (with a missing nut) this "ballast" solved my weird voltage drain issues that have plagued my Mini for the past 3 years.
According to the Bentley Manual it is identified as the "Ground bus X175" (page ECL-19, Fig. 10 Ground Bus, left front).
Won't be bringing my Mini to that BMW garage ever again.
Regardless- it wouldn't hurt to check that this nut is tight and the BUS is grounded.
Ok - while , this may not be directly related to your dashboard Brake Light problem. It was for me. I was baffled why my Volt gauge would go wonkiy and my hand brake light would suddenly illuminate (for no reason) while driving in traffic. Eventually the light would go out but then would come on again. The below solved my issues
Located left (driver side) just underneath the hood latch cable. Circled in red : is a thin, black, ceramic(?) "plate" or"ballast" with wires embedded in it leading to/from the wire harness.There is a bolt and nut securing it in place... the nut was missing.
Hmmm so I went out to to the mini to add this to my list of possible culprits, checked real quick and I don't even have that "Ground bus 175"??? Which I looked up in the Bentley manual, because I was confused, and it's there in the manual but not on my car. Facelift / PreFacelift? I do have a wiring harness of some sort with brown wires on the right side of the car (passenger) same location under the hood latch.....that somewhat resembles your picture but no bolt on the passenger side that I can see at this point.
Hmmm so I went out to to the mini to add this to my list of possible culprits, checked real quick and I don't even have that "Ground bus 175"??? Which I looked up in the Bentley manual, because I was confused, and it's there in the manual but not on my car. Facelift / PreFacelift? I do have a wiring harness of some sort with brown wires on the right side of the car (passenger) same location under the hood latch.....that somewhat resembles your picture but no bolt on the passenger side that I can see at this point.
Interesting... I have an '04 R53 (MCS) , build date: 11 '03...
I admit, I'm new to working on my Mini and have only begun to realize the slight differences between the '02 - '06 R53 models.
Interestingly enough; My '04 has two of these BUS located exactly opposite - left (driver) and right (passenger) under the hood release cables.
nd-photo.nl has simplified the point with regards, to (perhaps), it simply being related to a bad/faulty ground connection somewhere (?).
Thanks for the update. I hope someone can find a solution.
*EDIT: Just a thought; Do you happen to notice if your handbrake light coming on coincides when the cooling fan or AC kicks on?
Mine did... again just a thought
Just an update on my brake light warning.
I just plugged in my OBD scanner for something else and read the error codes. Surprise.... low brake fluid code... which got me thinking.
The red warning light has been intermittent, lights up mostly on track days. So what's different about the track?? Well I have different track pads vs street pads. My street pads are basically brand new and my track pads are worn & have 1/3 of the pad left. Soooo when I change to my track pads the brake fluid level goes down (less pad) then when I'm driving at the track it probably sloshes side to side enough to make the warning light go off. After the last track day I was busy and left the track pads on for a couple of days and had the warning light go on and off. Few days later I swapped the pads, fluid level goes back up when I push the calipers back out and no more warning light???? Well, I haven't seen it over the past couple weeks and finding the old "low brake fluid" error code today lit the light bulb.
