I have a brand new 2008 Prius but it has the same problem I had with my 2005: often when I start it and disengage the emergency break the dash light stays on, and I can't shift into drive or reverse and move the car [it thinks the emergency break is engaged]. Sometimes if I turn it off and back on once or twice it will turn off the break light and let me move; sometimes I have to put it in neutral and push it a few feet back and forward before the break light goes out. When this happened with the 2005 model I took it to the dealer but of course it wouldn't perform this trick there, so they had no idea why, or what to do. Now with a new 2008 I'm finding it doing the same thing -- again, sometimes, not always. Any ideas?
no idea but I doubt it's the light. Why? Cause if I lightly press on the parking BRAKE (not break) pedal, the ((!)) light will come on but the brake isn't engaged and I can still move.
I put my Prius in reverse and in drive while the park brake is on then release the park brake. There is no gear lockout connected to the park brake. Remember to press the service brake pedal while selecting a gear and to hold the service brake pedal down when engaging and disengaging the park brake. Are you pushing the park brake pedal firmly and releasing it in one motion? If the park brake light does not switch off press the pedal again firmly then release, if that doesn't work do it again. You brake to avoid a collision which could break your car.
did you put a stick shift in your prius or are you parking on the hills of san francisco? i'm pretty sure you don't need to use the parking brake unless the hill is really really steep
Many drivers always set the parking brake out of habit and/or an abundance of caution regardless of the incline. Not a bad habit to be in.
You can drive the car with the parking brake engaged -- I've done this a couple of times after forgetting to disengage it. The car beeps to alert you if you do this. So the problem is something else.
Hey I was facing the same problem as well but I figured out that nothing is wrong with your car. This condition arises under 2 circumstances 1) When you simultaneosly release regular brake pedal and the power button at the same time OR 2) When you sometimes do not realize that your foot is not on the regular brake pedal and start the car by pressing the power button twice. You can easily reproduce the problem (which is actually not a problem) for your dealer and he will tell you that everything is ok. You can read more on the following website VFAQ Prius Site - Visual Frequently Answered Questions for 2004 Prius Hope this helps. Abhishek
My wife and I purchase 2 Prius' for her business and recently one of them has started to have a lot of problems. First all of the lights were coming on on the dashboard, something we realized was that the gas cap needed to be screwed all the way in. Recently this happened again and had nothing to do with the gas cap....so I looked online and found that if you start up and turn off the Prius 3 times in a row it restarts the computer and sure enough all of the lights went off. Now this morning when I was driving the car to work to make sure everything was working properly I realized the brake light was on. So I pulled the release and it didn't do anything. I pulled over and as soon as I stopped the brake light went off again. VERY ANNOYING. As soon as I returned to the highway so did the brake light, whenever I got to 5mph and below it went off again and then back on at higher speeds. I'm wondering if anyone knows what is causing this and if you found a solution or reference to this on another website? Help, this car is great but can be a handful.
Does the 2003 have a brake release? The newer models have only a foot pedal. You press it to set the brake, then press it again to release. Tom
Make sure the Emergency Brake is fully disengage, otherwise your brake fluid maybe LOW. If all check out and the light is still on, time for a dealer call as your brake system may have issue.
All the responses are so annoying. They pretty much say the original poster is an idiot and don't believe him that the brake is disengaged. I am having the same problem. And I took a video of it. The brake light is on and it stays on no matter what I do with the parking brake.
The parking brake switch is just a simple push button which opens when the pedal is pressed. That wire goes directly to the Skid Control ECU. If the light stays on when the brake is released, the switch is probably no good, or the plug might have come loose. Unfortunately, it is severely buried in the innards, and is very hard to get at. If it is not the switch, it is the Skid Control ECU at fault, which is less likely.
