Parking brake indicator light staying on

This just recently started happening, my parking brake indicator light has started refusing to turn off. The parking brake itself doesn’t seem to be sticking. The parking brake sensor also seems to be working fine, if I depress the parking brake pedal when in drive or reverse it beeps like it should. No idea where to start with this?

 

There's a sensor in the master cylinder that senses the level of brake fluid. When the brake fluid is low, it turns the light on.

 

I’ll try that, thanks. The front brakes were replaced not long ago but I just checked and the fluid was just above the Low line. Wtf toyota, I’m really not happy with that but that’s what I get for going to a dealer for work. I just filled the reservoir, we will se if that fixes the issue.

 

Well . . . did it?

 

I’ll let you know tomorrow for sure, I haven’t driven it since adding the fluid. I started it and the light did go out, but that would happen anyway and then it would randomly come back on and go off. So I think the only way I’ll know for sure is after driving it around town some.

 

Can't speak specifically for the Taco, but on other (old, non-ABS) vehicles I've worked on the sensor would detect if the front brake lines had a different pressure than the rear lines. If so, there was leak in one of them. At least on those vehicles, the parking brake light being on constantly meant a bigger problem than just low fluid.

 

I remember the old AMCs that sheared the plastic pin off when you bled the brakes and you have to replace the plastic pin. The differential pressure switch was primarily a Ford, GM, Chrysler, AMC thing.

 

It seems like it may have just been low fluid, after filling it the light hasn't come on again. Now I just have to monitor the level and see if there's a leak somewhere, I have no idea why it would have been so low after getting work done. The dealer replaced both front calipers so they should have put all brand new fluid in right?

 

They should have at least topped it up. I doubt they totally flushed and refilled the system. Either way, it sounds like they may have messed up.

 

Funny you mention that! Guess I'm not the only old guy here that has owned an AMC As you probably know, you were supposed to remove the switch prior to bleeding. That switch was pretty useless; if you lost half your brakes, you would not need a light to tell you.

 

LOL. Yeah, I learned that the 1st time.