My 1999 Accord is having trouble deciding if its brake lights work or not.
Lately, I have been able to shift out of park about one out of every ten times I try–otherwise, I must use the shift lock release. This problem started developing over the winter, and it’s gotten progressively worse over the last few months. Only now did I realize that the inability to shift out of park meant that my brake lights were not working…
Since the brake lights work and I can shift out of park sometimes, I am baffled by the issue. What could be malfunctioning? Is it something that I could fix with only a tiny bit of experience, or will I have to take everything apart to even figure out what is wrong?
While looking up under the pedals to find the brake light switch…
look to see if maybe there was a little bumper or pad on the lever to push the switch. ( don’t know about the Accord )
I have seen some with this being the wear point ( or gone completely ) causing delayed function.
It’s a safety feature I learned the hard way that you have to step on the brake to shift out of Park with automatic xmissions (yet another reason for the desireability of manuals!). It’s to prevent kids in the car from playing with the shifter and accidentally moving the car. As said above, there is probably something wrong with the detection of the pressing the brake pedal. And it wouldn’t be surprising that this is what turns on the brake light. I’m not familiar w/the Accord. Sometimes this function is part of the brake hydraulic system, and others it is just a mechanical mechanism under or near the brake pedal. I had the brake lights fail on my 40 year old Ford truck with an auto xmission. At that age it doesnt’ have the safety feature. But the problem was the brake pedal switch under the pedal lever was bad. Inexpensive and easy to fix for my Ford anyway. On the Ford the brake pedal switch involves the connection of the lever to the brake actuator, so it is important the instructions are followed exactly and to remember to install the cotter pin.
Since you are having trouble with the shifter also then that points the trouble most likely as being from the brake switch or the power to it as the others have said. The brake light circuit usually passes through the emergency flasher circuit so that is a possible trouble area but only if the middle brake light along with the shift lever do work okay.
Its not your brake light switch. There is a shift lock solenoid located next to the shift lever under the console. To get to it you have to start at the back of the center console and remove that section first, then the screws holding the center section will be exposed and you lift that off next. One screw is under the cup holder though.
You can see where the key pushes on the shift lock release lever. The lever is L shaped and the solenoid is attached to the other leg of the release lever. You can adjust the position of the solenoid if needed, but it is likely that the connector is just contaminated (spilled soft drink or something) and all you need to do is unplug the connector and clean it out with a little spray contact cleaner (Radio Shack) or high concentration Isopropyl Alcohol (91% at least) available at any drug store. MAF cleaner will work too.
Its only about a half dozen screws to remove both portions of the console, easy to do.
One more work around is to tie the release lever down with a piece of wire. This is not recommended if you have small children and are in the habit of leaving them alone in the car with the engine running.
BTW, you can activate the shift lock release with a popsicle stick or anything else you can get into that slot, it is not keyed. You could simply jam something in the slot to hold the release lever down all the time.
Just to clarify my previous post. When I stated that the trouble is most likely with the brake switch I was assuming that when the shifter wasn’t working the brake lights were not working also, as the OP sort of seemed to indicate in his original post. If the lights are working while the trouble is happening then something is wrong with the power to the solenoid like @keith stated.
You have to read the OP very carefully. It is really open to interpretation but he does say “Since the brake lights work”, I ruled out the brake light switch. BTW, I didn’t catch that on my first reading either, I was confused on the first pass.
You’re right @keith, you have to read it real carefully. I’m not certain if the OP even knows for sure if the lights are always out when the trouble happens. I don’t have the feeling he does at least. Either way, we covered the possible causes of the issues. Hopefully he will respond with some good results.
This year model Accord is under a number of Recalls and one of them involves the interlock mechanism for the gearshifter.
There are others involving lighting and the ignition switch so unless any or all have been done in the past it might be a good idea to take the car in and have them all done in one shot. It’s free of charge so take advantage of it.