[marshak75]

Started my car this morning and completely out of the blue, my ABS warning light and Brake light are continuously on and won't go out. I checked the manual and it says "be careful; Brake lightly" in summary. It is very cold around Saint louis right now. The brakes are basically brand new. I plan on taking it to a basic repair place, but I don't want to pay through the nose for a new anything. Any thoughts on the problem. The car actually drove pretty well to work this morning. I took it slow with light braking.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

You can still brake without ABS. Brake light as in brake pad sensor light? As long as the brake system can build pressure you should be OK but obviously, take it easy and have it checked out as soon as possible since you don't want to fool around with the brake system.

How long ago were the brakes done? I had someone damage an ABS sensor which caused an ABS fault. It's possible the plugs are loose or they were somehow dislodged. Go to autozone and they can scan the car for error codes for free. This will reveal more about the warning lights.

 

[marshak75]

Brake light as in "Brake Warning light" on the instrument panel. Both are on simultaneously.

 

[grn04]

How's the fluid level? Low fluid will set it off. sometimes the parking brake sticks when it gets frozen but the parking brake sensor is on the handle and won't go off if the p-brake is stuck. It could be a bad ground on the wire though. It gets cold, a wire gets hard and chafed, and it sets off the light. Did the new pads have the pad wear sensor and did it fall out? if you ran over a twig it could have snagged the wire and chafed it.

 

[marshak75]

I had the brakes inspected last month and nothing bad was found. The mechanic also replaced the control arms and control arm bushings.

 

[marshak75]

Oh yeah, fluid level is good. I checked it because that's what the manual said.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Scan for error codes. BTW, the brake pad wear sensor wire is only on 1 front brake pad.

 

[5point]

It could be a bad brake fluid level sensor.