Seat Ibiza Mk 5 Brake Light Switch question

[JayJay23]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum.

My Son-in-law's car has an EPC warning light on his cars cluster - it is continually on (not flashing) - at time of chec, his brake lights work.

It is a known and common fault with the 'Brake Light Switch' - the car is a 68 plate. The location for these is underneath the brake servo area in the engine bay.

It is held with on stardrive screw and a plastic clip in the side. It is a four pin. I have included images in this post too.

I unpugged the connector yesterday, to check the terminals, and when I reconnected it, the engine was 'missing' and sounded like a tank. (Sounded to me like when you flooded the engine on the old manual chokes in the older cars) - the engine management light came on too.

So really, I have three questions....

1. Why did the car do this after unattaching and reattaching the connector to the Brake Light Switch?

2. How do I correct this?

3. Are there any special procedures in order to change out the Brake Light Switch? Is it just a matter of unpluggng, unscrewing, remove the clip on the side and pull it off? Or is there a certain procedure, please?

Thank you for your help.

[iichel]

It's a relatively simple switch, works on induction and it's not mechanical. You can just swap it over, that's fine.
Engine management needs the brake light signal for various programmes, like cruise control and nowadays perhaps even more, especially in a DSG.
If the signal goes missing, it will go into limp mode, what you probably experienced.

[JayJay23]

Thank you for your reply. It is appreciated.