My little green 1994 Protege has started to show the brake warning light on startup. It goes away after 20 seconds and the car seems to brake just like before it started to do it. According to the manual the light is used for only two things. Emergency brake on and low brake fluid levels. Now assuming the ebrake is off(and yes I can tell the difference) and the fluid level is normal what could cause this. The car is non-abs btw.

I first noticed the light come on one day on a real sharp left hand turn and then it went off after 5 seconds. It seems to only happen when the car has sat overnight and never when it has been parked for a few minutes or a few hours. Could it just be the ebrake sensor is screwed? The car is getting up in miles. Or am I looking at a total brake failure potentially?

 

Welcome to the board!

sounds to me like a low fluid issue or low fluid sensor issue. As the the fluid heats up it expands and therefore does not show a low level when the car has been running recently.

if it is the ebrake, the switch may be grounding itself intermittendly. The switch is just below the toothed wheel attached to the ebrake arm.

 

Well it looks a fluid level issue. I went out and noticed that since I was a bit low on fluid, just above min, and for that matter parked on one hell of an incline that perhaps that was the issue. Oh yeah and attached to the master cylinder brake fluid filler part was wonder of wonders a little two wire plug. Guess what that must be? Perhaps the sensor. Cant believe I missed that before. And of course the sensor was exactly in line with the low fluid line.

So I topped her up before I started it and voila! No more warning light. It makes total sense now how it never came on when parked in a level area.


Thanks for the help.

 

yeah the low fluid brake light will start coming on way before you hit the min line. mine was halfway between the max and min line when it started going on and off.

 

My brake light came on even when my e-brake was off. When I had it checked a couple months ago, the mechanic said it was cause I had 2 broken CV boots. When he repaired them both, the light went away. Maybe that's what's wrong.

 

My brake light went on and was fixed by fitting a new spring kit to the brakes on the back wheels. Apparently, the light can come on if the pads are dragging on the rotors or drums. It isn't in the manual, but Mazda mechanics know about it.

 

Or, they just know an easy mark when they see it.

 

They probably do see an easy mark in me, but a spring kit is about $20 for parts and $20 for labor. I probably needed one anyway. If they added brake fluid they didn't charge me for it. The BMW or Porsche dealer would have just charged $75 for adding brake fluid and been done with it.
Now that's an easy mark.

 

i'd def check the fluid level but my car did the same thing and it wasn't the fluid level cuz i always checked and maintained the level but wut i did was disconnect the negative batt cable and let it sit for about a half an hour and this cured the prob i dunno why? but it worked i never comes on anymore except for when it's supposed to I E: when i'm parked ad put the parking brake on hope this helps