Irishpilot03

This problem is baffling me. Under WOT or close to that, my e-brake light comes on until I stop heavy acceleration. I am not sure why this is coming on. Has anyone ran into this problem before? I've checked the e-brake connections, and I don't have any loose ones.

a851yy07

I have seen that before in m car. i just played with the handle for a minute and it went away. havent seen it since. could just need an adjustment.

Square

I don't know how the late C4's are, but in the early C4's, the contact in the handle assembly that turns on the brake light in the dash can become bent over time, causing the light to stay on or flash under specific G loads or bouncy road conditions. The previous owner of my 86' put a piece of electrical tape between the contacts to keep the light off. After I bought the car, I found this, and fellow forum member Fozzy_Bear suggested I just take a pair of pliers and bend the contact back to a position that causes it to operate normally. I did that and it has worked fine ever since (about 1.5 years now). In the early C4's you can remove the cover plate for the brake handle and fix this without removing the door sill trim plate or the driver's seat.

HTH!

Casethecorvetteman

Are you talking about the light in the DIC or the one to the right of the gauges? How much fluid is in the resivour? Is it full to the MAX mark??? I know on my 94 its very hard to tell where the fluid is at without taking the cap off.

Irishpilot03

It is the light on the right side of the gauges. I might check the fluid. Also for the first time last night, when I was accelerating, the ABS/ASR kicked off. Any other suggestions?

biggrizzly

Mine started doing this a few weeks ago and just yesterday when hitting it hard out of a toll booth the (brake) light came on in the dash panel as usual, and both the ASR service, and ALB serice light came on together. The (brake) light went out but both the other service lights stayed on until I restarted the car. However, I can get them to light again by doing another hard acceleration.
It has been almost five years and about 65k miles since I replaced the pads and had the lines bled. So I guess it is time for rotors, pads, and new fluid.

Casethecorvetteman

Then it is well over due mate, brake fluid is dirt cheap, and brake parts are not. Preventative maintainence is king.

Thats the light i thought you meant yes.... This has NOTHING to do with hand/park brake. This is more than likely low fluid. When you accelerate hard the fluid goes back against the back of the resivour, making it think its too low. Check this fluid level and come back.

Wildcat1

Case is correct, this happens to me every once in a while, it needs a little brake fluid. On mine, it looks like it comes out the back of the cap, a new cap didn't help.

Do you have a similar problem when running under a quarter tank of gas? Mine cuts out then. I hate that problem.

Casethecorvetteman

That sounds unusual, never seen one leak out the back of the cap before!! There must be something wrong on the reservoir-to-cap sealing surface allowing that.

Irishpilot03

Sweet, the resevoir looks a tad low, but the car has 47,000 miles and I don't think the fluid has been changed in a while (if ever) so I'll go do that this weekend and get back to you all.

Casethecorvetteman

Get some more in it straight away, keep it at the right level at ALL TIMES!!! DONT WAIT TIL THE WEEKEND. If you get air in the ABS/ASR unit its hard to get it out on some cars, not sure if the Corvette is one of them. If you let fluid get too low, you have no effective braking power, and in an emergency when the pedal goes to the floor, youre f***ed. Castrol DOT4 brake fluid is the go, make sure it is NOT a silicon based fluid.

VetteUSA

funny... the E-brake light had come on a couple of instances for me while under hard acceleration.... But I had always thought it meant to slow the hell down.

You learn something new every day.

Wildcat1

Yep, it is a sealing problem. When I looked at replacing the seal, even a new one looks like a cheap part that wouldn't help. I think it's a plastic gasket. I don't see how it is supposed to provide a seal. Maybe I'm missing something, but that's what I saw on the stock part and on a replacement from autozone. I figured there should be a rubber gasket or something, but haven't seen one.

Casethecorvetteman

Do you mean the ones at the base of the reservoir?