Handbrake warning light comes on at random but intervals, pretty sure it is not actually the handbrake lever switch. The Russian site has circuit drawings and these show that the brake master cylinder level warning switch is on the same circuit. I suspect water is dripping on to the connector, anyone else had this problem?
iMiev clone handbrake warning light on
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Is the vacuum pump running on a lot ?
Pretty sure the same warning light is connected to a low vacuum sensor as well. Pump the brake pedal hard and rapidly a few times and you should be able to get the same warning light to come on as well as an audible tone due to low vacuum. (You can achieve this even on a car without a fault)
Is your vacuum pump on the way out perhaps ?
i have recently received a "urgent safety recall-recall code JVA" for my P Ion on the basis that "water could enter the brake vacuum Pump causing it to corrode. If left there is a risk of losing the braking assistance ........" This is being replaced free of charge by the RAC at my convenience.
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Yep, I got one of those letters too, despite letting Peugeot know a few months ago that I sold the car.
Too late for me - my vacuum pump already failed before the recall and had to be replaced at my own expense.
By the way, replacing the pump is not a long term fix - there was already a recall in 2015 for the same issue and they're doing a recall again 5 years later. Mine was already replaced in the 2015 recall and failed in less than 5 years!
The fundamental problem is that the vacuum pump is sitting beside the right rear wheel totally exposed to salty road spray. The only thing that would stop this happening again in the future would be an undertray and a partition between the engine bay and the rear wheels to protect the components in the engine bay like the vacuum pump to the constant road spray.
Mitsi were negligent not to fit an undertray under the rear motor compartment. The brake pipes in the engine bay area of mine were severely corroded too for the same reason.
My reading of the Russian circuit drgs doesn't show any low vacuum signal connected to the instrument panel handbrake warning light. Happy for anyone to show me wrong on this😗
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Did you try pumping the brake pedal to see if you could get the same light to come on though, or whether it brings on a different light ? Now that I don't have the car any more I can't remember 100% which light comes on with low vacuum.
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DBMandrake is correct. On a car with no faults, if you pump the brake pedal rapidly in succession, the pedal action will become hard, a warning tone is heard, and the handbrake warning light will come on. The vacuum pump can be heard running for a short time, then the handbrake warning light goes out.
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Thanks for confirming my memory. I think low vacuum will always bring the warning tone on as well though so if @freddym is not hearing a warning tone it may not be low vacuum to blame unless the light and the tone have different vacuum thresholds? (Or the warning sound speaker is not working)
Thanks for all the advice. Just done a test, rapid pumping of the brakes X 5 and yes it does bring on the "handbrake" warning light, with the audible tone warning.
Since I get random handbrake warning light without the audible tone, I'm inclined to go looking for a problem with the hydraulic brake fluid level warning circuit, what do you think?
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