Okay, all of us together swear: "The next persons to get the idiot light will carefully pull the release while touching the pedal with the other hand to feel for the pedal to release." If no motion is felt then it hasn't been bumped.

I hope this doesn't take too long because you guys have peaked my curiosity.

 

Good idea...sounds like a plan.

 

I've had this happen in my 04 since I purchased it in 07. Seems it is very easy for me to bump the pedal when I get in the car. I have pretty much trained myself as to how to enter the car and don't have much of a problem now. As others do, I just pull the handle and go on.

I was more annoyed by the handle turning color and not fitting into the color of the car. I finally painted the darn thing to fix that problem.

 

The problem is rubbing it ever so gently when you get into the car. It seems that the pedal needs to be pressed in about a half inch and the light comes on. The pedal is not down far enough to engage the brake though. I am 6'2" and I hit this probably once every couple weeks....

 

Excellent idea. I just went and measure the distance the pedal has to be depressed before the light came on. Surprisingly, it was 5/16 ". That's actually quite a bit and much more than I thought it would be. I expected it to be so little that it would be difficult to measure. Took the measurement several times, so I am sure of what I measured.

So maybe there actually is some kind of quirk going on here.

 

I to experience the same problem. Like everyone else I just pull the release and go about my business.

 

I have played it with this AM. Hiting the brake pedal while entering, taping with foot sideways didn't do anything. The only thing that engaged the light was pressing the pedal top down which I never do.

I am thinking that maybe the cable which connects lever to rear hub pulls it so slightly until eventually gets to a point where lights turns on.

It has to be a poor location design as all of us somehow engage this thing or something else causes it to engage.

 

Happens occasionally in our '05.

 

Hahaha Group of users talking about the same error. The peddal is deff extremely sensitive to touch. I do the same think about once a week.

As stated its not enough to engage the brake, just trip the indicator light.

moral of the story....

try and not hit it

if u do just release the handle

if u dont realize it for a while...dont worry its just an indicator light...

if ur pushing it too far and it is engaging.... drift on.

 

Wow guess I'm not the only who had it happen to them. Just seems like everytime it happens to me I'm parking on a hill which made me think it engaged automatically until I looked it up in the book, was quite dissapointed thought wow another cool feature for this car.

 

Luke... I am your father...

Which brake pedal are you hitting? The brakes, or emergency brakes? You mention you hit it entering, it doesn't light up, but then you said you press the pedal top and it lights up.

Like many are saying, it's not something you feel like BOOM. It's just grazing the pedal entering and it goes down enough to trigger the pedal. If you're pulling the release and the light goes off, you're fine. If the light however comes back on as you're driving, then you might have an issue with the pedal spring being loose or something.

 

Well I did some shopping at the mall and got back to the brake warming being on. Gently lifted the pedal up with my foot as I pulled the brake handle and felt like 3/8 of an inch of play upwards as the light went out. Should of tried to just pull the brake pedal out and see if the light went out but next time. Did feel some play though suggesting I did tap it down when i got in the LS. This could be a episode of MythBusters.

 

Well I'll be...thought I was the only one having this happen! How interesting... The next time mine does it I will check and feel for movement when pulling the release lever.

 

i noticed this problem last week once i started wearing shoes instead of flip flops.

 

For those having this problem:

1) Release the parking brake.
2) Cover the carpeting under and around the parking brake mechanism with plastic, newspaper, etc.
3) Spray a bit of clear silicon spray on a paper towel and wipe away all the crud from the mechanism paying particular attention to the shaft of the parking brake return absorber.
4) Give the mechanism a final shot of clear silicon spray and wipe away the excess.

Repeat the above once or twice each year as I've been doing for the past 22 years.