If your dealer needs to order a brake light switch, its time for a new dealer. Pretty much every dealer carries the switch. It common enuf that its almost always carried.

 

souns like your using the wrong bulbs or the wiring is backward. The taillights are dual filaments so i thing the size is like 1157. Not 100% so dont quote me on that. If you use single filament bulbs they will only be 1 brightness and turning on your headlights willmake it max brightness instead of dim then full bright with the brake pedal. If thats not the case (hopefully it is being the cheapest and easiest to fix) then i would think the wires are switched either in the light panel (behind the taillight) or the wiring going to it.

 

I do not think (99.99%)it is your brake light switch, otherwise this would occur irregardless of whether your lights are on.

Since you said that you just replaced all the bulbs, I'll bet you your house thar lies your problem.

First, I hope you replaced the bulbs with the correct bulbs and correct wattage bulbs (best to buy from dealer although I've seen the autozone ones work).

What I would do is start your car, turn on your lights (brake lights should come on-right?) and then go to each bulb that you replaced and wiggle it around in the socket to make sure it is making good contact-while observing your brake lights to see if it affects them.

I am assuming from what you said that prior to replacing all your bulbs all around you did not have the brake light problem.

On my 99.5 A4 the rear tail light bulb sockets are finicky. I had the same problem after I changed all my bulbs and thanks to the dealer I bought the car from who put in the wrong bulbs in the wrong sockets.

let us know.

 

robfresh's symptoms fit a bad brake pedal switch. Let's see if that's how it pans out.

 

Well it was my brake switch after all!!! Just when the dealer was ordering it, one came in on inventory stock shipment. I went and pick it up and put it in that evening at work. It only took 15min to change it out. I took pics on how I did it and sent them to the do it yourself people at Audi fourms to post them or however they do it.

 

A brake pedal switch is a part I would expect to NEVER fail - for most makes I would be confident taking one off a car in the junk yard. Audi must have gone the cheapo route on them.

What did the dealer charge for the part?

 

There is a brake pedal switch recall on the New Beetle and Jetta. It's possible that the company may be using the same pedal switches in the A4's. Some of the problems that I've seen on this forum mirror those that I've seen in VW's... (brake pedal switch, window clips). Apparently, Audi/VW thinks that these problems warrant a recall on Jettas and New Beetles, but not on A4's.

 

I also heard about on the recall that a friend of mine told when he had the same problem on the said VW bug parts such as the brake pedal switch, window clips... But in your A4's case it could be an exception... Anyway, between the master cylinder and the wheels, there is a proportioning valve. What this does is equalize the fluid pressure between the front and rear brakes. If this valve goes bad, it will cause the brake light on the dash to go on. Now, the valve may be okay, but if there is a difference between the front and rear brake pressure, the light will go on. In this case what you need to do is bleed the brake system to equalize the pressure. In most cases, this will turn the light off. When you bleed the brakes, you need to do it in the proper order. Left front, right front, left rear and right rear. If this does not turn the light off, then you will need to replace the proportioning valve. Before you go through all that, check the brake light switch on the parking brake. If that's broken, and I think it very likely, that will leave the light on all the time. The switch is located right on the parking brake lever. Good luck!!!

 

Same thing happenned to me on my last car... brake switch. VW has a recall for this issue on the Jetta & New Beetle.