First off, I apologize if this has been covered, but all the results from searching have either lead to solutions that I have already exhausted or they referred to the actual brake lights on the rear of the car and not the one on the dash.

I have a 2000 Civic HX 5spd with ~162K miles. As the title reads, the brake light on the dash stays on. This is the same brake light that will illuminate to let you know that the emergency brake has been set. The problem is that the emergency brake is not set. If I pull on the e-brake, the light will glow a little bit brighter, and dimmer when released. The light started out very faint, but then grew brighter as I drove (I was stuck in traffic from an accident for 1.5 hours when this happened). The brakes appear to be fine. No noise, no smell, no different feel when braking.

All of my brake lights work and I assume all are the correct voltage/wattage since they have been in the car for a bit without this current problem. I have even checked the contacts to make sure they were clean. The brake fluid reservoir is plenty full and with clean fluid. The front brakes were replaced in Jan 09 and the rears were replaced in Feb 09. I have done a brake flush since all the brakes were replaced. I have also checked the e-brake switch by pressing and releasing on it to see if the light would full go off but no luck.

I appreciate any ideas on this as I'm out my own at the moment. Thanks in advance.


CLIFFS:
- Brake light on dash came on and stayed on
- Brakes work fine and car drives fine
- Checked bulbs, fluid and e-brake switch
- :wtc:

 

Pop off the brake fluid cover. Get some fluid on the plunger and slide it up and down a few times then put the cover back on. Let me know if that takes care of it.

 

No dice. :sad: The plunger seemed to move freely before but I moved it up and down a few times just to make sure.

Thanks for the idea though. If any more come to mine, I'll be more then willing to try them out. Thanks!

 

Something with my cap on my Brake Master Cylinder will do this when it is cold, I get it to go away by doing what I had described. Sorry man.

 

Update: Initially moving the cap around didn't change anything, but I decided to try it again but having a friend watch the light on the dash to see if anything happened. Sure enough it, even though the light would never go off, it would just change in the level of brightness. So I went down to Honda yesterday and got a new cap and blamo, it fixed it.

So 94CivicEx, your suggestion may have not fixed my problem, but it did get me on the right track. So thank you again for your time and input!