I have an '06 Dodge Caravan. The center brake light has not worked for a while, but when following my daughter home I just noticed that the L & R brake lights were on the whole time the car was driving.

With the key NOT in the ignition, I can press the brake pedal and the lights behave as expected...pedal pressed, lights come on....pedal released, lights turn off. When I start the engine, the brake lights are not on, but when I press them once, they come on and stay on. I hear a click (relay maybe?) somewhere near the brake pedal switch.

I figured, since the pedal switch is a cheap item, I picked one up at AutoZone and carefully followed the installation instructions. After setting the adjustment **** on the switch, I tested things, and it did not fix my problem. I really did not expect the switch was bad since it "worked" with the car not running.

Any ideas? I am not not wanting to put much more money into this car, but some friends are telling me my BCM needs to be reprogrammed...this is not something I know much about. Any advice is appreciated.

 

Looking at a wire diagram it appears your left/right brake lights are controlled by the Front Control Module or FCM. The middle light works independently via a direct battery feed through the switch. The FCM is on the data bus so you might try resetting it by disconnecting the negative battery cable for 5 minutes. Next look for corrosion on the FCM IPM connection by removing the FCM. It's that silver box bolted to the IPM. Disconnect the neg battery cable first.

 

Wow...the battery cable trick seems to have worked. I am exceptionally grateful for your suggestion. I will investigate for possible corrosion between the FCM IPM on a warmer day.


Thanks so much!

 

Good news. Gotta love those free fixes. Hope it stays fixed and thanks for posting it.