following cars with brake lights on constantly.

[tino2479]

its most likely because of the earlier dark nights, but over the last two weeks ive noticed quite a few cars traveling along quite happily at 30-40 MPH with their brake lights on (easy to tell with the high level light).
The majority seem to be smaller cars, aygo's micras etc and driven by senior citizens. only thing i can think of is they are automatic cars and the driver is riding the brake.Anyone else noticed similar?

[rallycross]

Yes and I find this really annoying / tiring on the eyes in traffic at night especially the newer stuff like the Astra which has extremely bright led brake lights.

Take your foot off the brake you muppets!

[Kozy]

tino2479 said:

only thing i can think of is they are automatic cars and the driver is riding the brake.Anyone else noticed similar?

See this alot, that makes sense.

Could never figure why they'd be on the brakes accelerating up hills...

[Bisonhead]

rallycross said:

Yes and I find this really annoying / tiring on the eyes in traffic at night especially the newer stuff like the Astra which has extremely bright led brake lights.

Take your foot off the brake you muppets!

We have automatics now for some reason. The Mrs drives like this, she feels that it is better to be covering the brakes at all times...

I tell her she is mad but she doesnt listen. I am now embarrassed to be in the same car when she is driving

[fourwheelsteer]

Could be a faulty/badly adjusted brake light switch too. Given the attention some people give to car maintenance they've probably never checked to see if their brake lights are working properly.

I had a car where the brake lights would flash when you pressed the clutch. The switch was only just making contact with the brake pedal and when you pressed the clutch the pedal assembly moved just enough to close the switch and light the brake lights. If the switch had been a milimetre higher the brake lights would have been on constantly.

Once someone explained how to adjust the position of the switch I was able to fix the problem but I wonder how many people thought I was randomly brake testing them?

[Alfanatic]

Bisonhead said:

We have automatics now for some reason. The Mrs drives like this, she feels that it is better to be covering the brakes at all times...

I tell her she is mad but she doesnt listen. I am now embarrassed to be in the same car when she is driving

Running with the brake lights illuminated sporadically or constantlyincreases the risk of her being rear ended, because it makes the brake lights useless. It is equivalent to removing all the brake light bulbs and having no brake lights at all, the person behind gets no warning that you are braking until you startaccelerating towards them. At night this is even harder to see especially if they have been staring at bright, constantly illuminated brake lights for the last 5 minutes.

So the person behind either runs the risk of driving into her, or does not want that risk and attempts a risky overtake at their first half chance instead. All this for a half seconds worth of reaction time that would be better gained by adding a half second to her following distance or knocking 1mph off her speed instead.

If she thinks avoiding being rear ended is the person behind's problem, not hers, remind her that while insurance companies recognise burden of fault, injuries don't. And her premium will increase anyway.

[Leins]

For some reason the Pug 206 seems to be very prone to this, although I also followed a colleague out of a Ford garage a few years ago in his new Focus ST that had the same issue. Meant he didn't get his new car back for another few days, but sorted it was with a new brake switch

A brake light test is something I do fairly often, just by reversing up near a large glass window or even a white wall

Edited by Leins on Friday 30th November 16:03

[Ozzie Osmond]

Bisonhead said:

I tell her she is mad but she doesnt listen. I am now embarrassed to be in the same car when she is driving

Buy her a driving lesson for Christmas?

[cptsideways]

Bet you'll never see a 2000-2007 VW Golf doing this! They always have broken brake light switches - always


Otherwise its old duffers riding the brake pedal

[roystinho]

Old duffers left foot braking. Now there's a scary thought

[Andyjc86]

I followed a 60 plate 320 the other day, in the end it annoyed ne so much I followed him home to tell him. His response: I know, it's been like it for for ages, it's tells me on the dash. I really need to get it into the garage. Thanks though.

tt

[AlpineWhite]

Often a broken brake pedal switch. My fabia did it. Highly irritating.

[simoid]

I'm erring very much onto the "technical defect" side of things.

Never occurred to me that people might actually drive around with pressure on the brake pedal

[cptsideways]

AlpineWhite said:

Often a broken brake pedal switch. My fabia did it. Highly irritating.

Good old reliable VAG electrics eh?

[carreauchompeur]

I've followed a few people where I've thought the brake lights were...broken but when we've finally reached a formidable obstacle they've come on. Cracking anticipatory driving!

[A.J.M]

Always seems to be a 206 that has the problem.

But then again, with so many driving around with blown headlight/brakelight bulbs it just blurs into the rest of the rubbish that you need to put up with.