My Subaru started something strange about a month ago. Whenever I press the brake pedal the dash lights illuminate. This only occurs when the light are off. If the lights are on, all works as normal however, I can move the shifter from Park into Drive without pressing the brake pedal.

 

Quirk #2. The third brake light over the rear window illuminates when i thurn the lights on. If I hit the brakes, the third light will become brighter like the brake lights.

 

Normal?

 

This may or may not have coincided with the intermittent AWD capability I'm working thru now. See thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28198&highlight=Frink

You've got a short or broken wire or connector somewhere. With symptoms like that, it's most likely a broken ground. Some circuit is missing it's ground, and is finding ground through another circuit. That can cause some really weird stuff to happen (que "Twilight Zone" theme). It will be a pain to find, but easy to fix.

 

I lost the ground in the hatch in another car. The rear defroster came on every time I stepped on the brakes. If I turned on the defroster, the wiper would also start. I wasn't sure if I needed an exorcist or a mechanic

I'm going to start tracing it out today. I did change a bunch of light bulds just last Fall. I wonder....

 

-10F here so I'll let the garage warm up a bit. I'm going to start in the back and work forward.

 

Stand by....

Check your left/right outer brake light bulb , if you look close you will probably see that the filaments inside the bulb are melted down , so that the brake light curcuit is shorted to the park light circuit

 

SEA#3

Very good thought by Sea#3. I hadn't thought of that before and that may be just what is happening. If that isn't the case, then I would also suspect a bad ground and you could prove it by making a ground jumper. Tie one end to the battery ground and the other end to the suspected bad area. If things clear up then you need to find where the ground break is for that area.

Sea#3 wins the cigar. Exactly what it was. And now....my AWD works perfectly! Thought it was a fluke that it worked in just the driveway. Nope. Drove 5 miles, hit a snow covered side road and went rally car mode. Perfect lock up.

 

Why? TECU confused by the brake pedal being "on"? Tranny shift lock brain cramp?

 

Thanks again,

 

Frink

Hats off to Sea#3, great call. You can learn something new here almost everyday. Thanks for the feedback on this Frink.