You learn something new every day, and today I discovered that my car has a brake light switch. I don’t know much about it. It all started when we went to the store and as I was putting groceries in my trunk, I noticed that my brake lights are on…great…on top of college and dentist, how about a car repair? I did all the usual: turned the car on/off, pushed the brake on/off, pushed the emergency brake on/off…you get the idea…nada! Still on. So I returned home and asked Mike to help. He did really try, and also went through the same spiel (love that word) and came to the same conclusion…yes the lights are on, and I have no clue what to do next...
Then TA-DAH, brilliant idea! Hey, I’ll go look on the internet. So after conferring with several sites, I found that none of which had my make and model. I did find some close that all stated to check the “brake light switch”. Huh? Ok, so that may be the problem, but what is it? They all said it was attached to the brake pedal (ok, I know where THAT is) and it’s under the dash (uh-oh). With a little more searching, I found a replacement part picture so I know what the part looks like and a very fishy picture (see above) that took a few seconds of staring to make the picture in the background look 3-D…no, not really, but I had to figure out the “landmarks” of what I recognized and use those to locate said “brake light switch”.
So armed with a book light (hey, it’s better than a flashlight, I can set the angle!) and set out to the car. I stooped into the driver’s side and followed the brake up…and was amazed at all the gizmos and thingamajigs. I theoretically knew those were all there, but to see them is something else…I mean, COOL! Looking up the brake, I found the correct part. It took a bit of angling to reach UNDER the dash, but UP above the brake and actually get to the part I needed. I spotted the end and pushed…snap (in a good way). Getting out and looking at the rear lights, they were finally off. Using the “24 days away from 18” daughter, I checked the brakes to make sure they turned on when I pushed the pedal…SUCCESS!
(I’ve included the aforementioned picture so you too, can find the unicorn or dragon…it’s there, just keep staring!)
