16 captured repliesDiscussion pagination complete · Source accounts, not a confirmed diagnosis
THIS DISCUSSION / SOURCE-DERIVED OVERVIEW
Discussion summary
YOUR RESEARCHPSM & ABS Lights come on with running lights
Reported or suspected cause
bulb
Reported cause
No successful repair reported for this finding.
1
Identified cause
0
Suspected cause
0
Reported fixes
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Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
Discussions that report identifying a cause
1
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Leading evidence: 'bulb' (1 discussions report identifying this cause; no attributable repair resolution). Across 1 matching discussions, the most frequently mentioned possible cause is 'bulb' (1 discussions; 1 report identifying it and 0 suggest it). The most frequently discussed action is 'Check fuse, i blew a4 at some point' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Battery was dead so I had a new one installed today.
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Placed an order for all 3 switches, then was looking at some pictures of the car and realized the behavior only started when I replaced the bulb in the taillight.
Explicit resolution reports before identified causes, performed actions and suggestions. Within each level, matching component labels precede direct query mentions and inherited thread context; successful versus unsuccessful discussion counts, owner confirmations and independent discussion support determine order. This is not a probability of success.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Replaced the fogs with Hella H3 bulbs, 3rd brake light and tail light with halogen.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Placed an order for all 3 switches, then was looking at some pictures of the car and realized the behavior only started when I replaced the bulb in the taillight.
Discussions that performed work without a confirmed outcome
1
0 original-poster resolution reports. Counts can overlap; they are not unique people or a success rate.
0 discussions have direct query context; 0 report a fix in that context. Other evidence may inherit the discussion’s subject.
Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
Swapped the harness back to the old one, changed bulbs around (previously this bulb was not blown, and doesn't appear to be.) Contacts look fine, fuses look fine.
Counts describe captured discussions, not unique people or a diagnosis. Author identities are not reliably stored. Exact duplicate evidence is counted once across matching discussions; one discussion counts at most once per action/state. Multiple repairs reported together remain a combination. Suggestions and failed attempts do not establish a fix. Matches cover whole discussions and can include related faults, model variants and incomplete threads.
16 eligible posts · 0 unverified posts · 1 discussions match the subject in their title or opening post.
Rennlist: 1 discussions
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1 acknowledgements have no verified action link; they do not establish a repair result.
Googled this and found a few different answers based on some specifics - can anyone help me narrow this down?
Replaced a bulb in the 3rd brake light, a regular brake light bulb, and my 2 fog light bulbs. Battery was dead so I had a new one installed today. Now when I start the car and switch my running lights on, I get the PSM and ABS lights on. It does not happen when turning the car on and simply stepping on the brakes, I need to turn the running lights on. How can I troubleshoot this?
Even stranger is when the running lights are on and the PSM/ABS lights are on, I can take the key fully out of the ignition and the car will continue to run until I shut the lights off.
Also forgot to mention I replaced my license plate frame lights with LEDs, I know that can sometimes be an issue but would it be causing this?
Here's some video of the behavior. Ignition on, lights off, brake 3 times, lights on, brake 3 times. All brake lights look to be coming on with the lights whether braking or not. Also - looks like all lights are coming on in my right tail when braking with the lights off? Wtf?
https://imgur.com/s88YZ0b
I have LED license plate bulbs and no problems. I'm suggesting that it could be the ignition switch electrical part, or the headlight switch, or both. Both are well known for causing some very strange electrical problems. I recently had to replace my head light switch because it only went one position and would not turn on the head lights. It broke inside. Replaced it and all is well.
How can I determine it's the switch? Ordered some regular halogen bulbs for the license plate to try those again because I threw them out when I put the LEDs in (doh). Just strange that this only started happening after replacing a bunch of bulbs.
Just to confirm, there's no time the 3rd brake light should ever be on, unless the brake pedal is being depressed yes? If that's the case it looks like it was happening prior to the bulb changes, but only with the lights on, however it didn't start throwing the PSM ABS warnings until after the bulb changes.
Is this a headlight switch or brake pedal switch?
Third brake light on only when brake pedal is depressed. Did you use any LED bulbs anywhere else? Fog lamps? Brake light? Or did you just replace with standard bulbs?
I bet it is the ignition switch. Same exact thing happened to me. I could remove the key and car kept running. Turn headlight switch and it would kill the engine.
Amazon
Amazon
fixed it for me.
LEDs only in the license plate. Replaced the fogs with Hella H3 bulbs, 3rd brake light and tail light with halogen. I realized from a picture I took before the LED license plate bulbs that the 3rd brake light was behaving like this before, but this is the first time I'm getting the PSM/ABS lights.
Really? Same brake behavior as in the video I posted? Was just about to purchase a brake and headlight switch but would love to verify before I start throwing money at this! Headlights seem to be working totally fine.
Somehow it's not doing the still running with keys out and headlights on thing anymore. Maybe it makes sense to just replace all 3.
When it happened to me, I didn't check any irregularities with the lights. First symptom was the ABS and airbag light and then the engine wouldn't turn off.
https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...-turn-off.html
Wow so an update. Placed an order for all 3 switches, then was looking at some pictures of the car and realized the behavior only started when I replaced the bulb in the taillight. Opened the taillight up and tried to reseat the bulb and the metal contact snapped off. Then the other one did. Started the car up with the bulb removed and everything behaves exactly as it should, no PSM/ABS light, only now I'm missing a brake light and need a new harness I assume? Can these contacts be replaced individually? Solder a new bulb socket to the harness? Because as it appears, the harness is more expensive than all 3 of the switches combined.
That bulb socket is pretty common. You could try finding a match at Napa or some other auto parts store and splice it in place of the failed one from your harness.
Impressed with your persistance in finding the root cause and finding it by digging deeper yourself.
Reading your symptom description I thought just replace the switches, alright!, thinking it would be the solution.
At the same time it shows that in such specific cases the shared experiences from fellow owners can't prevent having to do that last bit of root cause digging by oneself.
Okay - like I stated before, after pulling the bulb and running the old harness, everything worked as it should, only sans-brake light:
https://imgur.com/adM791v
I took the taillight out, fiddled around with the contacts a bit, and then only the turn signals worked. Okay, whatever, at this point I knew I needed another harness, so I figured I'd just fried the harness trying to do something. No worries. The new (used) harness arrives and I wire it up. Still only the turn signals. Checked the fuse, I blew A4 at some point. Replaced, everything's back working, brake light that I replaced, reverse, side indicators, EXCEPT for the running light which was PREVIOUSLY WORKING in the video above. Wtf?
Swapped the harness back to the old one, changed bulbs around (previously this bulb was not blown, and doesn't appear to be.) Contacts look fine, fuses look fine. Any ideas for next steps here? If it was a headlight switch, wouldn't the side indicator light be messed up too, and what are the chances of that happening in the middle of all this?
