For some reason, the warning system in the gauge cluster keeps telling me there's something wrong with the brake lights, but they all function properly. This has happened to both my ZX's. Does anyone know how the warning system "knows" the brake lights don't function? Perhaps then I could rig up a dummy signal or otherwise disable the sensor.

 

You're sure all 4 tail lights work when the lights are on & when stepping on the brake petal???

 

The tail and stop lamp sensor is underneath the passenger seat. But double check like Nismo said to make sure ALL the lights are working.

 

Mine seems to do this too, and I've had people out there looking at it telling me they're all working, but I'll have to check myself.

 

I have this all the time too, except mine tells me my lamps in the back are out when I have my brakes on after a bit, I've just ignored it... (probably not the greatest idea in the book)

Is that what's going on for you? or the actual brake lights

 

For me the car will run the check and tell me everything is ok. Once I press on the brake pedal, the little box will then light up red and when I press the check button it will flash. Brake

 

When a brake light is out... is should flash the Light icon w/ the word "STOP." .... Brake might be brake fluid???

 

Or maybe it does say Stop? All I know is that it's a picture of a light and a word under it.

 

It just so happens that I have something for you to watch...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...=280zx&pl=true

 

I've been wondering. How the hell do I turn my hazard lights on in this car? I noticed the fuse for it, then realized I have no idea how to turn them on.

Also those little red door lights, that come on when you open the door. Is there a fuse for them? I swear mine used to be working, now they won't come on anymore. I replaced the bulb and still nothing.

That's what mine shows is the word Stop with the light. Now when you say all 4, the two red side markers on the back should come on then right? Cus they aren't coming on, they don't even flash when the hazards on(I figured that out) So I assume I've found why my light turns on. I shall replace these!

 

my headkight one comes on and i have double triple blah blah checked and every thing is all g double O , D . weird all the ZX's might be possed an trying to tell us something . ha ha ha

 

dunno fellas... I've owned 10 280zx's & never had a non-fixable warning display prob. It might just be a faulty display box... disconnected / loose wire
... a dim bulb... who knows. Maybe you could get a spare warning box from the junk yard & swap them.

 

I haven't actually tried replacing the bulbs, although I once heard of someone who had that display show up even though all the bulbs were working. When they went and changed out all the bulbs then the display went away. Anyway what are the four different lights?

 

Could be a faulty sensor box. It relies on resitance differentiation between the circuits to determine if one has failed or not. If one stop light is giving a reading of too much resistance in comparison to the other stop light then it will throw a warning. I've had a similar problem with the STOP flashing after the brake has been used while driving. That is the only faulty display warning I've ever gotten. I've since removed the sensors and the warning system. As far as four lights goes: there are two bulbs in each taillight housing linked up to the brakes. The side markers are not affected by the brake pedal.

 

Well like I said for my car the check system will go through all the routine checks then give the ok. It's not until I finally press the brake pedal that the light comes on and then throws me the error. My guess is that maybe one of the bulbs is to the point where it's starting to die and just giving off more resistance so it's throwing an error like you said.

 

check your grounds, they are very very important in this system, especially the one by the taillights. ive had every light come on at some point in my car, especially washer fluid and rad overflow level. ive had a bad connector in the taillight harness go bad and cause an error light

 

Yes! That's exactly what's happening for me too! I guess it's a more common problem than I thought. I guess I'll try and remove the stoplight sensor box from under the seat (anyone know which one it is?) and hopefully it won't think there's a permanent "brakelight-out" situation.

 

its the box under the glovebox, its mounted to the cross member and is actually labeled "warning box". just remove the lower panel and heater foot duct and there ya go

 

Thats the warning display amplifier SHADY.

The Taillamp and Stoplamp sensor is under the passenger seat and it is labled as the "Taillamp and Stoplamp Sensor" so it's easy to identify Heat Rave. But you cant just pull it out. You'll have to jump a few wires so your lights will still work. If you want to remove it and need to know which wires to jump just let me know.

 

Why is everyone so eager to remove stuff? It may take a little longer to fix the problem but once it is fixed then all should function properly. I know if the car will let me know something is wrong thats a good thing, I check all my lights and signals once a week as well as my tires but sometimes I miss stuff like the water level or the actual brake lights when the pedal is pressed. It's nice to have that extra security...the cops around here don't care if you didn't know your brake or tail light is out they just write tickets. I say give yourself a chance and fix the problem and let the car help you stay out of trouble.

 

It's nice when it's working properly but after 20+ years it's got it's problems. Sensors start malfunctioning. And besides, the Z is the only car I've owned that had that type of warning display for some of the stuff it does and I've always gotten by.

Besides, having a taillight out is just a fix it ticket. Fix it and you don't have to pay for it I removed all mine to simplify things when I rewired my Z. I rewired the ENTIRE car. The only wiring that's original is the engine harness, and even some of that is new.

 

Yes, PLEASE let me know how to properly remove it. Now knowing it's under the passenger seat almost makes me wonder if I somehow damaged it when I had the passenger seat and sat near those underseat units to work on stuff.

 

alright, of all the wires going into the sensor you need only be concerned about 4 of them for your taillights to work without the sensor. RG, RL, YG, and YL.

The RG and RL need to be jumped together. And the YG and YL need to be jumped together. If by chance your car uses different color wires then mine, then just let me know and I'll dig into my wiring diagrams to get you the correct colors.

The RG and YL wires come from the Taillights to the sensor. The RL and YG wires run to the sensor box from the power source. The rest of the wires are just for the warning display and can be taped off or whatever you want to do with them. If you want to fashion some jumper wires you can just jump the apropriate wires at the connectors without having to cut anything.

 

On my '82 Turbo, the stoplight sensor box has two plugs going into it. The 4-wire plug has a Yellow/Blue, Yellow/Green, Black/Red, and Black wires. The 3-wire plug has a Red/Blue, Red/Green, and Yellow/Green wires. I tried jumping the two yellow wires together and the two red wires together, but I still have the same stoplight warning message (and now the taillight warning sensor has gone on too!), even though the lights do work. Any ideas?

 

Ah see, I removed my warning system altogether. All of it's misc. wiring and sensors and all that crap. I don't even have the little warning light in my dash anymore. I was having problems with my Stoplight and coolant reservoir level sensors being tripped. So I just uninstalled the entire system when I rewired my car. I suppose I should've mentioned that part. If you want a quick and easy way to disable the system you can unplug the connector from the amplifier which is located right under the glove box.