I took the Cougar to work the other night and upon arriving I set the parking brake. The light came on, I shut off the car, and went off to start 10 hours of merriment (JOY!....not). Upon getting in my car to leave I started her up, reached down to disengage the parking brake, but before doing so noticed the light was not illuminated.
So I'm guessing it's the switch or the bulb, I haven't checked yet. Anybody know a quick troubleshooting method? Ireally don't want to have to pull the dash if I don't have to Easy enough, but time consuming....Also is this switch a common part or will I be hunting forever to find one if needed?
Holy , is the parking brake switch ever a PITA to get to.
However...the wire isn't all that bad to access. Might just be a loose connection, or maybe the switch was in juuuussssstttt the right spot where it wouldn't trip (older switches sometimes do that). You could try wiggling the brake lever to verify that. Really it sounds like more of a contact issue than something that needs replaced. I hope. :)
Mine has never worked. It looks like a PITA to trouble shoot so I've left it alone. My auto parking brake release still works so I'm good ;)
Wire was looose --- FIXED for free!
sounds like you got lucky