Handbrake Light comes on when foot breaking

buckeejit

buckeejit

buckeejit

Soldato
Joined
14 Aug 2004
Posts
2,992
As per title, my handbrake light comes on when braking usually while coming down a hill. Would anyone have any ideas what this could be? I drive a Mazda 626 and I really hope it isn't the clutch :(
 
cheers guys, I'll check first thing. I told my dad about it and he said that I need to see a mechanic asap as something could end up leaking into some sort of cylinder.... I didn't quite catch what he said but does anyone know if there's any truth to this?
 
any cylinder problems would normally give you a soft pedal and the light would eventually stay on.

99.99% of the time its low fluid level, you will need to find out if its because of natural wear in the brakes (probably) or a slight leak somewhere (possible).

Definitely needs checking out though any brake defect can be lethal to you or others.
 
buckeejit said:
cheers guys, I'll check first thing. I told my dad about it and he said that I need to see a mechanic asap as something could end up leaking into some sort of cylinder.... I didn't quite catch what he said but does anyone know if there's any truth to this?
Click to expand...

hardly any truth to it, it's more than likely pads or fluid if it was a cylinder failure you would feel it through the pedal
 
Mum had a 57 reg Corsa (thank **** she got rid of it, it had so many issues) and when the front pads wore low, it showed as low fluid level on the dash.
The fluid level wasn't the problem, it was just the pistons in the calipers had moved so much due to the low pads that the car thought it the fluid level was low.
 
my slave cylinder on a crappy sport punto used to leak and make the light come on, break fluid and clutch fluid in the same thing, well.. master cylinder for breaks connecting to the slave for clutch,

oh and my clutch went yesterday on my polo gti :(
 
oh, forgot something when I was breaking quickly earlier due to some dumbass on the road - when I was braking, I felt like the car was trying to grip to the road but couldn't quite and I felt it jump a bit. Hard to explain but does this make sense to anyone?
 
My money is on the fluid!

My MR2 Turbo has done this before under hard acceleration when it needed a top up.

edit. sorry didn't read the fact it comes on under breaking! :P Could be pads as others have pointed out.
 
buckeejit said:
oh, forgot something when I was breaking quickly earlier due to some dumbass on the road - when I was braking, I felt like the car was trying to grip to the road but couldn't quite and I felt it jump a bit. Hard to explain but does this make sense to anyone?
Click to expand...

ABS?
 
buckeejit said:
oh, forgot something when I was breaking quickly earlier due to some dumbass on the road - when I was braking, I felt like the car was trying to grip to the road but couldn't quite and I felt it jump a bit. Hard to explain but does this make sense to anyone?
Click to expand...

Most likley either your (A)ntilock (B)raking (S)ystem kicking in, if it felt like the pedal buzzed or pulsated at the same time, if not just the car slipping or sliding on something in the road - when braking hard this could be as little as a change in road surface, eg. new tarmac depending on conditions.
 
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