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MG MGF Technical - Always On Brake Lights

Hi,

MY 96 F has the brake lights stuck permanently on. I looked into it a little, and removed the switch under the pedal. I pulled the switch apart as far as it would go, and pushed the brake pedal down and replaced the switch. The pedal STILL does not touch the switch. There is some play in the pedal though, and if i lift the pedal up the switch is actuated and the lights go off.

Is there some kind of spring that should be doing this for me? Does anyone have a diagram, or a web page that shows the pedal box in detail? Any advice at all would be useful.

Thanks

Garry
Garry

Garry,

This page from Dieter's site might help you.

http://www.mgfcar.de/brakes/index.htm

Good luck!
Sam Murray

Hi,

thanks for the link.

I have tried that approach and its not working. Any other suggestions?

Garry
Garry

Yup, you're not trying hard enough!

You really have to pull it till you think it will snap, then a bit harder and suddenly it will snap, in fact you will think you have broken it - but if you haven't got it to the point where you think you've broken it you haven't been pulling hard enough.

Keep the pedal pressed when you insert the switch and do not manually lift the pedal at any time or you will end up having to do it all again.
Will Munns

So i took you're advice, and ended up snapping the sensor. :(

So i ordered a new one from the owners club, turned up Saturday. Turned the engine on, pushed the pedal in fitted the sensor and released the pedal. I still have the same problem, lights always on.

Any other ideas?
Garry

ouch, if you press the switch by hand gently do the ligts go off?
Will Munns

they go off if I press the switch. Is there any kind of spring return on the pedal i should look for?
Garry

only thing I can think of then is that you can't be fitting it correctly (although I can't see how you could fit it wrong)

The pedal doesn't return against a stop, which is why if you lift it by hand (or foot) you end up adjusting the switch too far. The idea of the adjustment is to make it so the brakes cannot be accidentally "held on" by the pressure of the brake switch, but if you are really careful someone here has in the past added a small self tapper into the top of the plunger to allow an additional manual adjustment
Will Munns

Gary,

I had a similar problem on my 97 MGF, after many brake light switches later, I ended up bending the bracket which holds the switch with a pair of mole grips! works wonders!!!
steven sanders

thats my kind of engineering :) I'll try that and post the result.

Thanks!
Garry

you could try putting a small blob of silicon rubber on the end of the plastic switch to make up the difference in clearence, worked for me.
Paul Robertson

Thanks for all the advice. I have solved the problem. I pushed the bracket about 50mm up towards brake pedal using a screwdriver to leverage it. Works perfectly now. Thanks a lot!

Garry
Garry

I had exactly the same problem and ended up sticking plumbers washers on top of the switch to raise it to the pedal. Seems to be working fine.
D Brown

This thread was discussed between 05/12/2007 and 26/01/2008

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