Strange brake light warning beeping

[bargi]

Hi,

Bit of a strange one so bare with me.

Just recently when pulling away in traffic the car started beeping at me (single beeps) to which I've narrowed down too...

If the head/parking lights are turned on the "Brake light faulty" symbol appears. If I apply the brakes the warning symbol goes, but comes back with a beep as soon as I release the brakes.

If the head/parking lights are turned off all is fine. When I apply the brakes for more than about a second I get a beep and the "Bulb failure: dipped headlights or rear lights" symbol comes up. As soon as I release the brakes the symbol disappears.

I drive in London traffic every day and as you can imagine, it's fffing annoying

I've done a walk around and all lights are fine, including the brake lights.

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

 

[Vex182]

Are you sure it's the bulb warning light and not the worn brake pad symbol? Looks a bit like (O) symbol.

 

[bargi]

yeah sure, it's "Bulb Failure" and "Brake Light Faulty" it's the bottom two in the first column

 

[bargi]

Just to add a bit more to this.

When the parking/headlights are on the brake lights come on!
I pulled the fuse for the brake lights (13) and with parking/headlights on brake lights don't come on.

I can't seem to find a good wiring diagram, but does anyone know if this means the issue is before or after the switch?

 

[bargi]

The plot thickens

2 more things
When I apply the brakes the front left parking light comes on.
When I turn on the parking lights all three rear brake lights come on, applying the brakes makes them brighter.
Removing the front left parking light makes no difference.

So seems I have a short between the front left parking light and the brake lights.

I'm guessing it's going to be somewhere under the dash given the affected lights are at opposite ends of the car.
Anyone with experience of the wiring hazard a guess where it could be before I start poking around?

 

[bargi]

If anyone is interested this was driving me nuts, another symptom was when driving if I turned the lights on the accelerator signal completely dropped and sent the engine to idle until I reapplied the accelerator, very nasty on a motorway at speed.

Anyway should have just did what so many other threads recommend and just replaced the bulbs.
I thought they must have been ok because they were working and that there was short somewhere in the wireing.

Pulled the bulbs out and the brake lights/rear driving lights are a single dual filament bulb.
Turned out rear drivers has one broken filament that would drop and touch the other below while the rear passenger one of the the top filament "legs" had dropped and was shorting the one below.

£4 to replace and no more warning beeps every time I apply the brakes!