In this article I digress from my main topic for a bit, but I feel it is somewhat related and could be useful information for others on the internet. I would imagine that most anyone who becomes a homeowner would likely do minor car repair themselves. Hence in this article I will demonstrate how I repaired a broken Brake Light Switch on an 93 Honda Accord.
The symptoms of the broken switch are that the brake lights stay on all the time. When the car is turned off, the brake lights are still on. This can occur because on this particluar model there is a peice of rubber that is attached to the brake pedal though a hole in the brake pedal arm. When the brake pedal is up in its normal position, the rubber plug presses agains the switch causing the brake lights to be off. If the rubber plug is missing or the brake pedal is depressed, the switch button which normally is pressed by the rubber plug extends through the hole in the brake pedal arm and the switch defaults to the on position causing the brake lights come on.
In this particular case the rubber plug had deteriorated and parts of it were found on the floorboard of the car. The mechanism was fixed with a small piece of plastic from a grocery store discount card and a piece of duct tape. Simply tape the piece of card over the hole in the brake pedal arm and the switch will once again function normally.
Here is a photo of the end result.
30 responses so far ↓
1 Justin B // Jul 21, 2008 at 11:33 am
I just had the same thing happen to my 92 Honda today. The little piece of rubber or plastic was broken into several pieces.
Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try and let you know if this strategy worked for me as well.
2 Frank s // Sep 28, 2008 at 8:30 pm
What a life saver. My girl’s 1991 prelude was seen with the brake lights on around 10pm. I pull out the wiring clip temp. Then I searched for answers and found this. Same things had happened. The picture was perfect help to find and fix the problem. Thank you very much.
3 D. Chadbourne // Oct 4, 2008 at 12:42 pm
A thousand thanks for the information and picture. It’s such a small but critical part. Who knew it could fall apart one day and make a simple trip home from work so unnerving.
4 Bobby G // Dec 5, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Thanks for the picture and the directions. I used a small plastic bottle cap which slipped over the top of the piston when the brake pedal was pushed in. It helps to have 2 people to do this. Secured the bottle cap with duct tape. This was on a 91 Accord.
5 Dave B // Dec 11, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for the tip…I found that there was grease smeared where the hole was, so I took a medium size plastic wall anchor, them shoved a smaller wall anchor into its hole on top and chopped off the bottom of the whole thing. Then when I went to put it in the whole in the brake pedal and it almost snapped into place. Working like a charm. I kept the pedal depressed with a wood board against the seat bottom to get access. Hope this helps!
6 Mike O // May 28, 2009 at 8:59 pm
This information allowed me to solve the problem in a matter of a few minutes. I put a bolt with a hex head through the hole with a nut on the opposite side to hold it in place. Felt like I had invented a better mouse trap!
7 John A. // Jul 4, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thanks for the info and picture. This helped me solve my brake light staying on problem. 1990 Honda Accord. Good job
8 Bud // Jul 7, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Thanks much, I am in your debt
a mechanic probably would
have charged me $250 to fix the problem
It happened on my 1984 Honda accord
9 Christian // Aug 8, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Thanks a lot for the info, you will be glad to know that your wiki answer came up first on google when I searched for, “tail lights stay on”.
My car is a 1996 Toyota corolla, and now I have a good idea as to what to look for, hope its pretty similar!
10 Christian // Aug 8, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Fixed!! On my corolla, it has a small metal plate with a 1/4″ hole in it, which is where the pole from the switch goes into to turn off and on the lights.
If anything was inside the hole on the plate, its gone now, so I put a screw through the hole, and a piece of tape on the back of the screw to hold it in place till I find a nut to secure it….so fixed, and so happy!!!
11 JR // Aug 9, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Fixed - Exact same probem - got home last night at 10 pm - noticed brake lights on.
Tried all switches, started drove around - no luck - brake lights still on.
Pulled fuse #25 to cut power to brake lamps for the night.
Read this article - looked under the brake pedal this AM - and guess what I found - 4 pieces of plastic from the brake switch.
Thanks a bunch.
I am sure my local Honda dealer would have charged me a minimum of $500.00 to investigate and repair.
12 paul // Aug 10, 2009 at 9:02 am
Thanks for the picture. I also used a hex bolt. Feel like I just switched to Geico with all the money I saved by googling.
1997 Nissan maxima
13 Josie // Aug 26, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Same thing Brake lights stayed on. Dead battery.
Checked the fuses and relay switch. Found the plastic stopper broken on the floor.
Fixed it with a temporary plastic and duct tape. The photo really helps too!
Thanks alot. a easy fix even for a woman!
14 Josie // Aug 26, 2009 at 4:58 pm
that was a 1992 honda civic ex.
15 Scott // Oct 14, 2009 at 11:34 pm
My ‘97 Accord is still rockin’ thanks to this post!!
16 david // Oct 15, 2009 at 10:21 pm
This problem will also keep your cruise control from working.
17 Jimmy // Jan 9, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Same problem with a 1996 Toyota Corolla. Found the plastic stopper in pieces. Bought a new brake light switch pedal stopper for $6.00 from auto parts. They said it is the only one made by anyone. It’s from Honda, don’t know if it will work in my Toyota but the part store guy says it will. Found out I can’t get under the dash to install it without taking out the dashboard and removing the brakelight switch, not enough room. So I’m gonna duct tape a penny to it or try to get a nut and bolt into the hole.
18 Mary // Feb 16, 2010 at 3:46 am
Thank you so much for the post with the picture! The instructions were easy enough for a damsel in distress to understand how to fix her car problems!
~Mary
19 RJ // Mar 6, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Simple Fix that saved me a headache and some $$$!!! Used two pieces of small duct tape and pliable plastic. Works great! The picture helped tremendously. Found blue plastic pieces on floor mat and when looked up there, small piece remaining, removed and fixed w/ your solution. THANK YOU!!!
20 Scott // Apr 8, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Worked like a charm! I first tried removing all the fuses just to get through the night. None of the fuses turned off the light (so said my 3 1/2 year old daughter). I googled it … you would have thought I pressed the “I’m feeling lucky” button! Thanks for posting.
21 D_TRAN // Apr 20, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Thank you very much. My car is Toyota Corolla 1993. The rubber stopper of brake switch was broke into several pieces.
I fixed it with plastic snap_in standoff for PC motherboard. It fits into the hole of brake pedal arm, so we didn’t need duct tape anymore .
Administrator - It’s interesting to see all of the different ways people are implementing this fix - Using the standoff was another great variation.
22 jvalenz // May 11, 2010 at 11:42 pm
This ranks very high on the most useful things i’ve learned on the internet. I would have driven almost 100 miles with the brake light on if it wasn’t for this post. So thanks a lot!! This is the best use I’ve gotten outta my LA public library card in over two years! Lol
23 Uncle Dave // May 31, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Thanks a million! I had pulled the ‘Stop/Brake’ fuse to spare the battery, checked all the bulbs for moisture and then figured on some expensive repair nonsense. After reading this I looked again and found the little wax bits of plug just as you said and now 30 min. later after some duct tape and a penny it’s as good as new! Thanks so much for posting!
24 Tom // Jun 14, 2010 at 8:53 am
Thanks, it worked great. The picture was worth a thousand words.
25 Toroy // Jul 7, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Man, my car was out of commission for a couple of days for a simple fix like this. Glad I researched it and found your site!
26 Elvin // Jul 28, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for the tip, I’ve been 2 days trying to find that piece of rubber that was on my floorboard in pieces to replace,but with no luck, I’ll try your tip tonight. None of the ford dealers or parts places knew what I was talking about.Was going to take it to Ford garage tommorrow but you just saved me a bunch of money,thanks again.
27 Handy Andy // Aug 1, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I had this problem with my wifes car, and replaced the rubber button with one from a newer car in a junkyard. 9 out of 10 of the cars in the yard were missing these pieces. 2 months later the button disintegrated again. This time I used a high strength polyurethane hot glue to fasten a penny to the pedal. I don’t see this as a permanent fix, and will epoxy a metal plate onto the pedal.
28 Fred Mussler // Aug 7, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Thx so much- Wifes car and everything with my mechanic is $350 so i was afraid to take it to him- fixed it with your diagram - eve have three screws left over(g).
Thanks so much
29 scott // Aug 11, 2010 at 9:26 pm
worked Great man
30 Tom // Aug 20, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Worked great! I actually found the little piece of metal that was originally (double-taped?) to the spot. Why would Honda make that a separate piece on the ‘93 Prelude is a mystery. Taping a small 1×1cm piece of popsicle stick (or something similar) would also work if the duct tape was not hard/strong enough.
I originally could not find where the location the picture was from, but the techs at Kauffman showed me. It was a free quick 5 min fix that would have cost me $75 at an auto shop.
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