Originally posted by chris8852:
1999 ford contour 2.0
My car won't pass VA state inspections (yearly inspection) because the brake light is on. When I slam on my brakes, I feel a pulsating, but they can lock up almost easily.

I took it to a car place, they said it has ABS but for some reason the ABS light is not coming on, ever, and someone may have disabled it fron behind the dash.


This place thought I didnt have ABS at first and once they found out all the equip. was there they said it'd be 3-5 hrs of electrical diagnostics at $89 an hour and that they didnt have time to do it, to make a schedule for another day.

The brakes work fine except that they lock up, i dont have a problem with that.


I need a cheap way to fix this, I am buying this car from someone, they released new rules this year for the inspections apparently, they say the brakes have been working like this for over a year, and i trust them.

When I pull the parking brake the light gets brighter until i put it down, the light dims.

I'm thinking there is more than one circuit that controls this light, and I could clip this particular wire in one of the circuits.

But I need to know which wire, or come up with another solution.

my theory is that someone had a prob. with the ABS system (2-3 owners ago) and didnt want to dish out a lot of money, so they did this

P.S. the wiring diagrams in my haynes repair manual aren't detailed enough.



ok, there is actually a pretty low chance you have abs, when you turn on the car (not start) look for an ABS light, if there isnt one, then you dont have ABS. Now, if your brake light is on, there is a number of reasons... That light means that the parking brake is on, OR you are low on brake fluid. Thats my guess. If you are low of fluid this can create all kinds of brake issues, soft pedal, sieze brakes are possible... Of course, if you are low on fluid this also means you have a leak somewhere, and it seems like your contour is a base model, which means it probably has drum brakes (in the rear), which means that its very possible that you blew a break cylinder inside of one of the brakes. In which case causes the rear brakes to quit working, and since there is constant pressure in your brake system the fluid will constantly slowly be leaking. But your fronts still will work... meaning there is increased stress on the front brakes, which will cause extra heat, which will warp the rotors, which will cause brake pulsation. Basically to check if your brake cylinders are blown, park your car overnight, then before you go for a drive, check in the rear wheels, sneak behind the wheels underneath the car and check to see if there is a puddle of brake fluid in one or both of them.

*gasps*

Im done.


Last edited by AliasJerkââ??¢; 07/23/06 09:12 PM.
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