What Causes Brake Light to Flicker

Have you ever encountered your brake light flickering while driving your car? If so, then don’t get panic since it is not a serious problem. You see, this kind of problems happens when the level of the brake fluid is low and triggers the brake light to flicker. Flickering brake light is triggers by a sensor that is located on the top of the brake fluid cylinder, the sensors causes the light to go on to warn the driver that the brake fluid is level is low.  Since the brake warning light is flickering and will not stay on, then it only mean that the brake fluid is just slightly low and not below the minimum level.

If the brake fluid is slightly low you will notice the brake flickering when the car pass over a drip or a humps because the brake fluid will slosh inside the reservoir when this happens the fluid will temporarily out of contact with the sensor located at top of the reservoir. When the fluid have no contact with the sensor it will triggers the brake warning light to comes on.

If you encounter this kind of problem all you have to do is to buy yourself a good quality brake fluid, DOT 3 or DOT 4, then pour into the reservoir carefully just enough to reach the maximum level. There is an indicator line on the reservoir that reads as MAX, do not fill in fluid above this level. When you put brake fluid on the reservoir do not open the reservoir for a long time. If the reservoir is leave open for a long period of time it might contaminate the fluid with moisture from the air that may cause another problem on the brake system.  Avoid the brake fluid to come in contact with the car paint because this cause damage to the paint. It is advisable to regularly check the level of the brake fluid to avoid this kind of problem in the future, include this in your on your car maintenance routine before you using the car. If the amount of fluid is regularly decrease then it’s time to bring the car to a shop and ask the auto mechanic to check the brake system because there is probably a leak somewhere in the system.