Parking Brake Light on but not Engaged
08-14-2023, 06:38 PM
#1
Parking Brake Light on but not Engaged
Well, it seems that when it rains it pours, long story short, my parking brake light is on but the parking brake can be engaged and disengaged, car seems to drive fine but the warning light is illuminated and yelling at me lol
How it happened - Not exactly sure how it happened, but when I went to drove my car onto some ramps in this afternoon to chase down some electrical issues I’ve been having is when the light came on and stayed on, it happened while adjust the car on the ramps slightly. After setting it and then disengaging it to reverse slightly.
on a side note, it does look like my brake fluid is in between min and max right now, but not sure if the car being on ramps moved it enough to trigger the warning but I assume it would go away if it was leveled.
anybody have anything similar happen?
How it happened - Not exactly sure how it happened, but when I went to drove my car onto some ramps in this afternoon to chase down some electrical issues I’ve been having is when the light came on and stayed on, it happened while adjust the car on the ramps slightly. After setting it and then disengaging it to reverse slightly.
on a side note, it does look like my brake fluid is in between min and max right now, but not sure if the car being on ramps moved it enough to trigger the warning but I assume it would go away if it was leveled.
anybody have anything similar happen?
08-14-2023, 09:21 PM
#2
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2009 C63
Well, it seems that when it rains it pours, long story short, my parking brake light is on but the parking brake can be engaged and disengaged, car seems to drive fine but the warning light is illuminated and yelling at me lol
How it happened - Not exactly sure how it happened, but when I went to drove my car onto some ramps in this afternoon to chase down some electrical issues I’ve been having is when the light came on and stayed on, it happened while adjust the car on the ramps slightly. After setting it and then disengaging it to reverse slightly.
on a side note, it does look like my brake fluid is in between min and max right now, but not sure if the car being on ramps moved it enough to trigger the warning but I assume it would go away if it was leveled.
anybody have anything similar happen?
How it happened - Not exactly sure how it happened, but when I went to drove my car onto some ramps in this afternoon to chase down some electrical issues I’ve been having is when the light came on and stayed on, it happened while adjust the car on the ramps slightly. After setting it and then disengaging it to reverse slightly.
on a side note, it does look like my brake fluid is in between min and max right now, but not sure if the car being on ramps moved it enough to trigger the warning but I assume it would go away if it was leveled.
anybody have anything similar happen?
08-15-2023, 01:25 AM
#3
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2012 C63;1971 280SE 3.5(Sold);2023 EQS 450 SUV 4 Matic (Wife's)
I think D.K is correct and angling the car on the ramps lowered the brake reservoir fluid level enough to trigger the low brake fluid warning light on the instrument cluster. Is the warning light still showing when the car is back on a level surface? You may want to top off the reservoir or if you don't know when the fluid was changed last, maybe flush the brake system. MB suggests flushing the brake system every two years.
08-15-2023, 03:45 AM
#4
I think D.K is correct and angling the car on the ramps lowered the brake reservoir fluid level enough to trigger the low brake fluid warning light on the instrument cluster. Is the warning light still showing when the car is back on a level surface? You may want to top off the reservoir or if you don't know when the fluid was changed last, maybe flush the brake system. MB suggests flushing the brake system every two years.
08-15-2023, 03:54 PM
#5
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2012 C63;1971 280SE 3.5(Sold);2023 EQS 450 SUV 4 Matic (Wife's)
There are a couple of things you can try. Are you getting a tone with the BRAKE warning on the cluster?
Low brake fluid Level. Disconnect the electrical connecter on the sensor on the top of the brake fluid reservoir and see if the light goes out. If so the sensor is reading low fluid or is stuck/defective. If stuck a light tap or two might dislodge it.
Parking Brake. There is a switch at the top of the parking brake pedal travel (when the parking brake pedal is all the way up) that is depressed by the pedal. You can see if you can physically raise the pedal a bit by hand to engage it. If not it looks to me like you will have to take the cover under the dash off to investigate further. Maybe the parking brake cables are starting to seize in the area that they run through an outer cover. Maybe while you had the car on the ramps you applied the parking brake more firmly than normal causing a issue with it retracting when released.
I don't think the warning will need to be erased using a scanner. It is simply set when the sensors go to ground and unset when the connection to ground is released.
Low brake fluid Level. Disconnect the electrical connecter on the sensor on the top of the brake fluid reservoir and see if the light goes out. If so the sensor is reading low fluid or is stuck/defective. If stuck a light tap or two might dislodge it.
Parking Brake. There is a switch at the top of the parking brake pedal travel (when the parking brake pedal is all the way up) that is depressed by the pedal. You can see if you can physically raise the pedal a bit by hand to engage it. If not it looks to me like you will have to take the cover under the dash off to investigate further. Maybe the parking brake cables are starting to seize in the area that they run through an outer cover. Maybe while you had the car on the ramps you applied the parking brake more firmly than normal causing a issue with it retracting when released.
I don't think the warning will need to be erased using a scanner. It is simply set when the sensors go to ground and unset when the connection to ground is released.
Last edited by Mort; 08-15-2023 at 03:59 PM.
08-17-2023, 06:11 PM
#6
Just an update on this one so far.
brake fluid is not the issue here, almost at max and no show.
took the car to an Mercedes specialist Indy local that a friend recommended to me and we scanned on Xentry and it’s showing the brake brake actuator is engaged so initial thinking is the parking brake switch is done, so we’re going to start with replacing that. Looks to be an $11 CAD switch we’re going to swap out. Will update if that solves the problem.
On a side note - driving with no issues for 2 days now with the exception of the damn red warning beeping constantly lol
brake fluid is not the issue here, almost at max and no show.
took the car to an Mercedes specialist Indy local that a friend recommended to me and we scanned on Xentry and it’s showing the brake brake actuator is engaged so initial thinking is the parking brake switch is done, so we’re going to start with replacing that. Looks to be an $11 CAD switch we’re going to swap out. Will update if that solves the problem.
On a side note - driving with no issues for 2 days now with the exception of the damn red warning beeping constantly lol
