Brake lights not coming on - w proof

[Joelgjr]

so i noticed when backing into my garage my brake lights weren’t coming on either in the back of the car or on the dash. I did some testing, to find out the brake lights came on during regen, would turn off during mechanical braking, and then would turn back on when he brake hold activated, leaving me exposed with no brake lights whenever I was braking with the brake pedal.

Brought it into service and they were able to reproduce it. However the part they needed, a replacement brake pedal switch, had to be ordered so I left with the car.

I recall reading a few posts of peoeple all saying they were getting rear ended in this car more often than other cars. My car is at least proof this may be a real thing. Car is in my sig

I will post my service slip in a min

 

[JD01]

so i noticed when backing into my garage my brake lights weren’t coming on either in the back of the car or on the dash. I did some testing, to find out the brake lights came on during regen, would turn off during mechanical braking, and then would turn back on when he brake hold activated, leaving me exposed with no brake lights whenever I was braking with the brake pedal.

Brought it into service and they were able to reproduce it. However the part they needed, a replacement brake pedal switch, had to be ordered so I left with the car.

I recall reading a few posts of peoeple all saying they were getting rear ended in this car more often than other cars. My car is at least proof this may be a real thing. Car is in my sig

I will post my service slip in a min

Something similar happened to me as well. I only noticed because my turn signals and adaptive headlights weren't working either.

I pulled over and rebooted immediately. Everything was fine after that. I probably should have taken her in for service, but it's never happened again.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

so i noticed when backing into my garage my brake lights weren’t coming on either in the back of the car or on the dash. I did some testing, to find out the brake lights came on during regen, would turn off during mechanical braking, and then would turn back on when he brake hold activated, leaving me exposed with no brake lights whenever I was braking with the brake pedal.

Brought it into service and they were able to reproduce it. However the part they needed, a replacement brake pedal switch, had to be ordered so I left with the car.

I recall reading a few posts of peoeple all saying they were getting rear ended in this car more often than other cars. My car is at least proof this may be a real thing. Car is in my sig

I will post my service slip in a min

Hard to know about other peoples' cases. I'd expect that the different behavior of cars and their drivers with regen, especially using one-pedal driving, could lead to additional rear-ending by careless tailgaters.

 

[timvracer]

I don't understand, lifting with regen still activates the brake lights. At least my little avatar shows that.

Hard to know about other peoples' cases. I'd expect that the different behavior of cars and their drivers with regen, especially using one-pedal driving, could lead to additional rear-ending by careless tailgaters.

 

[drklain]

In my case, I was stopped at a red light. Brake lights were on. I have confirmed that my brake lights come on with regen, brake hold and when depressing brake pedal.

What you describe is a broken micro-switch on the brake pedal when you depress the brake. That can happen for a lot of reasons (wear and tear, pushing brake pedal really hard/bottoming it out and it was mis-adjusted at installation, etc.), but I would not draw the conclusion that the rear-end collisions reported are a result of defective brake lights/circuitry in a Tesla. Given the significant number of rear-end collisions that take place in the US every day, I'm surprised there aren't more we hear about on this list. My suspicion is that the reason we hear about them at all is because people are asking for help in insurance claims and/or reporting parts delays affecting repair time.

 

[eye.surgeon]

I'm shocked and frankly disgusted that Tesla service would allow you to leave with malfunctioning brake lights. That's actually criminal and their liability is significant if it results in an accident. Someone there doesn't know what they're doing. That should never, ever, ever happen.

 

[Joelgjr]

That’s all well and good except my car only has 4K miles, which is irrelevant because it’s exhibited this benahvior since I got it new

I would also expect “wear and tear”, ignoring for a second the fact that my car has 4K miles, to not result in a situation where my brake lights do not activate.

To eye surgeons point, they shouldn’t have let me leave wth the car. They couldn’t even tell me when the part would come in so this isnt an overnight thing

The car would fail inspection in the state of MA so ignoring ethics for a second I don’t think they were legally allowed to have let me leave.

The reason why I waited until 4K miles to get this fixed is because it’s one of those things I noticed in the back of my mind only. From day 1 I thought it was odd my garage didn’t glow red as I slowly backed my car into my garage, which is down a very steep hill. It wasn’t until later I realized that it didn’t start glowing red until the brake hold went on. I went out with the Mrs and did road tests and confirmed it all. Fortunately, the IC accurately reflects what’s actually happening

 

[Rockster]

I'm shocked and frankly disgusted that Tesla service would allow you to leave with malfunctioning brake lights. That's actually criminal and their liability is significant if it results in an accident. Someone there doesn't know what they're doing. That should never, ever, ever happen.

I was thinking the same thing as I read the original post.

 

[croman]

They don't have loaners? I would've demanded one. The car is defective and it's a required safety element. Is the service center nearby? If so, go get a loaner. If not, have them drive one to you and they can take your car in. It's the least they can do.

 

[whitex]

Similar thing happened to me in the past with a 2006 Lexus 400h. The difference was the car told me there is something wrong with the braking system and to take it to service. It would only light up the service light that when driving uphill though. Service connected a laptop to it, said "computer says your brake pedal light switch is malfunctioning sometimes", even though it wasn't doing it right there and then (no hill to test it on), they replaced it on the spot and I went on my merry way. Problem fixed in ~30 minutes in-and-out, since I usually decline the carwash. I was hoping Tesla had similar software which notices such hard to spot things as soon as they start happening, rather than wait for the owner to notice somehow that their stop lights are not working. Apparently not yet.

 

[Joelgjr]

I just wanted to update as I'm the OP. When I brought my car in, this is what the service report said

Concern: Customer states: Since I got the car new, I've noticed that the brake lights do not come on during manual travel of the brake pedal. As soon as Brake Hold activates, the brake lights come on. Brake lights function correctly during regenerative braking.
Pay Type: Goodwill - Service
Corrections: Brake Pedal General Diagnosis
Confirmed customer concern. Recommend replacement of vehicle brake switch. Parts not
currently in stock, reschedule when parts are available.
​

Basically they agreed with me and I went home on 13-Jul. I didn't hear anything by 27-Jul so I emailed them. They wrote back promptly and scheduled me for the install of the switch 10-Aug. They provided me with valet pickup. However, my service report read quite a different tune after getting the car back (it works now by the way):

Concern: Customer states the brakes on the cluster are not lighting up. Install SOP brake
switch.

Pay Type: Warranty
Corrections: Switch - Brake Light
Removed and replaced vehicle's brake switch. Verified normal communication between
brake pedal and instrument cluster display. NOTE: 3mm of pedal travel is within normal
spec to illuminate brakes on instrument cluster.

Part Quantity
SWITCH,BRAKE ON/OFF (1005124-00-A) 1​

I never mentioned anything about the "cluster not lighting up". I never mentioned anything about "3mm of pedal travel". They basically rewrote the service report to say the issue only affected the IC (false), and that the brake lights don't normally come on the IC right away anyway, but we replaced the brake switch anyway.

It was an odd experience, but its fixed now so I'm happy.

 

[Russell]

That is fishy. Just like not giving the customer a work order when they drop off the car.