Piston Slap: Haunted Parts, Creepy Lights, Scary Stratus
Nathan writes:
I have a 1999 Dodge Stratus. Lately, after I drive and get out of the car, I go around the back of the car and notice my brake lights are still on. They start to turn off with a tap of the brake pedal. After this started occurring more often, I changed the fuses as well as the battery. Unfortunately this problem is still coming back. Any advice?
Sajeev answers:
Boo!
Test the Brake On/OFF (BOO) switch: sounds like it’s been gradually losing connectivity, getting bad enough to get under your skin. The BOO switch is normally attached to the lever that operates your brake pedal, mounted somewhere at the firewall. Should be a cheap and easy fix, provided you don’t have a bad back.
Bonus! A Piston Slap Nugget of Wisdom:
Replacing the battery and fuses equates to throwing parts at a problem and hoping it’ll work. Which is never a good idea: always learn more about your car’s subsystems before replacing one component in the chain of command. Wiring diagrams, shop manuals, or (best of all) searching a model specific forum might have saved Nathan $50-80 in parts that he didn’t need to replace.
[send your technical queries to mehta@ttac.com]
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A brake light problem in a Mopar. Nice to see that in this crazy mixed up modern world, some things never change. I had more brake light trouble on my Mopars than any other electrical issue over the years, and none of them the same. 59 Fury with a hydraulic switch on the master cyliner that kept getting gummed up so brake lights stayed on all the time. 66 Fury III with the replacement master cyl with a shaft the wrong length so that the pedal would not hit the switch. Fixed that one by slipping a rubber pencil eraser onto the plunger. Wonder if this is where Ford got the idea on that Escort. 71 Scamp was the best of all. Mine had a hitch. Hooked up wiring harness to my buddy's dad's fishing boat. Watched the ammeter take a hard dive when I hit the brakes. Then it wouldn't move. A short blew the fuse, I figured. Wrong. The little fuse stood there with courage worthy of a childrens story and withstood that horrible overload. And yes, it was the correct rating. But then the surge went up and fried the not-as-brave emergency flasher switch in the steering column. Miserable job to change it.
Had the same thing on a Toyota. I'd been usig a Krooklok antitheft device and it had pulled the brake pedal up too far, dislodging the brake light switch so it sat incorrectly on the bracket. kicking the pedal allowed it to vibrate briefly back intot he correct orientation, allowing the brake lighst to switch off. Oh well at least you know your brake lights work.
Changed that same switch on my Neon last year. i presume it's the same one even, it fits on all the Chrysler /dodge.jeep models. very easy fix, and cost me about 6 bucks if i remember correctly. just a note to prove how they don't make'em like they used to. on my 2000 Neon, the brake switch light had to be changed at about the 135000Km mark after 7 years of use. on my 1983 Chevrolet Celebrity (I can hear you laughing)I only had to change the same part after 25 years of use and over 300,000km on the counter... makes you think where the automakers are heading in terms of quality...