Hi All. Have noticed a few times recently that for no apparent reason my rear lights will come on when the vehicle is parked, turned off and the key removed. Car is US now in Canada. Any ideas???

 

That's your car trying to stop from going over the border to Canada.

 

Wow really!

I think though it may be the brake light switch on the brake pedal. Why it comes on and off is a mystery though. If they come on you would expect them to stay on.

 

I think that's a pretty logical theory.

How often does it do it?

Could someone be fooling around with one of your key fobs?

 

Do you have the security fog light switch set to on, next to the light switch? It may be problems related to that system. I'm having them right now. After I arm, the fog and tail lights are supposed to stay on for 30 seconds after the car is armed, but they are staying on. Period. Intermittent problem, though, but enough that I wait to see if the lights go out or not. Wouldn't know if they're coming on by themselves when I'm not around. Still bugs, though.

 

I have tried with that switch in the I and O position and no difference. My 1 minute exit lighting after arming seems to work just fine. Mine is just rear lights being freaky.

While they are on touching the brake pedal fixes it so i'm starting to think the brake switch is faulty or somehow sticking. Strange though that once on sometimes they do go out by themselves.

 

i had this problem on my car, they told me it was both a monitor switch and the pressure in my break pedal

 

I went under the dash in the week to look at the brake light switch and the pressure in the pedal was part of the problem. However the brake light assembly is a very ingenious piece of engineering. I removed it all and stripped it down. You have to be careful to do this in the correct way or you could damage the switch/sensor its self.

There is a central piece to the switch that is pushed by the brake pedal and in my case it was not out of the switch far enough. It looks like it has a thread that you can unscrew to lengthen it but, no. You had to pull it out as far as possible and re-assemble the switch assembly. Putting the switch back in its place is a push in and twist movement. the final twist to the locked position shoots the centre post of the switch out against the brake pedal. It kind of self adjust under the pressure of the spring in the switch.

I can only guess the whole switch looks like a couple of $Hunn. Took me an hour to get it all out, figure it out and put it back in. Cost.......0$

Been fine since.

 

This has been happening to me lately as well. I think it could have been the reason my battery was dead this morning. I'll have to check this out... Thanks!

 

answer in the form of a question....."What is a Brake Light Switch?......That is correct. These are a common problem.