Adam A

I know the brake light switch is a common problem for people and the threads have been covered extensively (thankfully!), but I found an unlisted symptom from my switch. I've had typical problems for the past few years (ABS, BAS, ESP lights), but did nothing about it, because it only occurred once every other month or so. The other day, the esp, abs, bas lights came on and I just stopped and restarted my car as I usually do and the lights reset, as they always do. When I started off in traffic, the acceleration just kept on kicking out dangerously while trying to get onto a 50 mph road. This spuratic, hesitant acceleration continued to happen while driving or accelerating with no rhyme or reason and had no warning, but would resume after a second or two. Every thread I looked at and every search I did all pointed to the MAF sensor. I examined it and it was a clean as could be.
I thought the two problems were unrelated, but when I tried turning on the cruise control the other morning, it didn't engage, again, I thought that was unrelated and another problem for my aging car. The more I thought about it, I realized that the switch thought the brakes were either pressed, or malfunctioning, per the warning lights that had previously turned on, but hadn't yet turned on. I think the car thought the brakes were pushed while accelerating and deactivated the gas pedal (think the computer preventing unintended acceleration; Camry/Audi 5000).
I changed out the brake light switch this morning. The old one had a plunger that was pushed in half a centimeter and wouldn't come out without physically pulling it. The new one was fully extended (as it should be). After installation, the hesitant acceleration and cruise control problem went away, and the lights haven't lit up.
The main reason I'm posting this is because I couldn't find any search terms to find the hesitant gas pedal/lack of acceleration problem and I'm trying help anybody else with this easily fixable problem.

kjb55

I'm trying to solve the no acceleration and ASR, etc lights on (all resets to normal with restart) that is happening frequently. I have changed the brake light switch - but this has not fixed the problem.