When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My first clue something was wrong was an intermittent "SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL" DIC message. We scanned the 'puter and got the code for brake position sensor, but I'd been putting off the repair.
Last night the message reappeared and the brake lights wouldn't shut off unless I lifted the pedal with my toe. I also discovered that the brake lights are controlled by the computer! When the car shuts down, it shuts off the lights! So if you ever lose the computer and your car dies in motion, you don't have brake lights. Odd, I think.
The part itself is quite cheap. Less than $20 for the Duralast brand piece from Autozone or just more than $15 for the GM part from Amazon.
Well, that's where it was. The wiring harness is sitting between the steering shaft on the right and the arm of the brake pedal on the left. The stud on the arm moves forward and rotates the sensor by riding inside a tuning fork looking thing.
Just to the right of the stud on the arm, you can see the flange the thing was mounted on. The screw goes through the flange and into a bronze insert on the sensor. The placement of the arm and steering shaft mean you can't get much in the way of tools up in there. The location under the dash means it's quite contorting to get two hands up to the screw.
The copious amounts of loctite mean you have to have leverage and it will take a tool to turn it all 22 complete revolutions to free the screw. 1/8 of a turn at a time.
As you can see, the screw is at least twice as long as it needs to be.
Even more fun, once you have the screw about 1/4 the way out, the thing flops out of its home and you have to figure out a way to hold the tool on the screw, hold the sensor still and somehow still turn the tool!
The tuning fork thing is spring loaded, so it wants to sproing down while you reset the wrench and then uses all your tool clearance taking up the slack.
Joy.
It took me 50 minutes to remove this part.
The best part of this is replacing the failed component is not the complete repair. Once the new part is installed, it has to be calibrated. That requires a Tech2 scanner or equivalent.
Something I don't have. My buddy has one, but he's out of town until Friday, minimum.
The car starts, but there's no brake lights and the "service active handling" light is indicated.
Looking up the part number for the bad brake pedal position sensor.
GM 10302722 is my part. AC/Delco's part number for the same piece is 89047699.
If you figure out how to trick the parts guy's pages to show you the part...
GM 13597429 is the current part number. On the sidebar it says that this number supersedes 89047699 and 13589103.
C0161 again!
Same symptoms as the last time this happened to me.
But this time I noticed something!
It's easy to get to the screws holding the bracket it's mounted to! So I took out the entire bracket!
Much easier! Amazon should have the replacement here on Sunday... then to calibration.
As I remember, the c5 had a simple on/off sensor . The c6 actually reports pedal travel…. Hopefully the updates were improvements and you’ll never be bothered with it again
Used to be in the 2005 car, had the brake pedal sensor, and a on/off type floor board sensor for the clutch.
GM changed over to the brake pedal sensors being used as the clutch position sensor as well, so on M6 cars from 2006 ,you have one on both pedals.
As stated, if you pull the bracket, makes is a lot easier to install the pedal sensors. The one thing to not forget, it to grease the inside of the forks, and the pedal stuck, to slow down the plastic fork wear of rubbing against a dry steel post.
As for from 2006 to 2013, to do a brake or clutch pedal relearn with VX gm Nano running Cracked tech2 win, use 2013 car year, then go into body to get to special programing for either sensor. Hence a glitch in the programming to get to the BCM, and you have to use the 2013 year. On a 2005 car, just used 2005 year that will get you into BCM directly.
As for the sensors, either they just wear out internal with problems, or in some cases when the fork and pedal studs have not been greased, the plastic fork will wear, causing the wrong ohm reading of the sensor that was learned to the car. Once the fork starts to wear, it gets worse quickly, so granted that you and just do a relearn, it going to be short lived, and best to just replace the sensor as needed isntead.
Regarding bitching about the brake sensor, wait until you find the TB has problems. At least with the brake and clutch position sensors, they are not that hard to find factory parts and replace. With the TB, it can be pulled apart to clean it sensors if you have the talent, but unlike other TB's that have external replaceable throttle position sensors, it does not, and GM desires for you to replace the entire TB when it has problems instead (if you can find one).
I know this thread is old but I am having an issue and was wondering if this could be my issue. Brakes WERE working fine except for the 3rd brake light staying on. I tried several fixes in other threads including the connector in the bumper. Connector was clean with no corrosion and ALL lights were working properly in the rear bumper except for the 3rd light staying on. Have had to pull fuse to keep from getting a dead battery. BUT, I have been trying to trace another issue with the front driver turn signal and the horn intermittently working. So from another thread, I have tried pulling the fuse box and checking the copper leads on the undersides of the fuse box. Found an issue for the low lamp circuit and replaced the copper wire.
I should note that the fuse box has been removed and replaced several times due to other issues. For starters, I drilled the lip off the metal sleeves that hold it together. So what happened was metal shavings shorted a connection or 2 and I believe this may have been the 3rd brake light issue. So after resolving the metal shavings removal, (so stupid to have done that), and resolving the copper wire underneath, all is good, it seems, but the brake lights. Only time will tell if I resolved the light and horn issue with the copper fix but for now they seem to be working.
Only now, I have no brake lights. Backups, parking lights, hazard lights all work. They flash on and off while arming and disarming, parking lights are on when car is running, but no brake light activation with the pedal.
So Now that you have my back story, the question is this...Could this have caused an issue with the brake switch needing to be relearned or replaced? I am not sure how to check the switch for proper activation. But for 12 dollars I have a replacement coming from Amazon. Can anyone help me understand this issue or have any other ideas what I can check that may have gone wrong?
Brake Pedal Position Sensor
