my dash lights and my shifter lights come on when i apply my foot to the brake. i don't really care because i always put my running lights on but this never used to happen before. i am in a huge process of restoring my car thats probaly what the problem is but i have no idea where to start anyone know what the cause of this is or and oppinions. i haven't toutched anything under the dash also so i don't know why this would be happeneing. when i turn my lights on it doens't matter but when there off the lights come on. thanks guys

 

Could be that something broke and is shorted to the brake lights, so whenever you apply the brake pedal, the dash lights get power.

 

Funky elec issues like this are usually due to a bad ground somewhere. Check your grounds back by the tail lights.

 

Good point, if the dash light ground is broken it's trying to ground through the brake lights...

 

Broken bulbs are notorious for these issues. Think about it: odds are your wires won't just fuse together and cause a short without some user error. Often when a bulb goes the filament dangles around and sometimes creates a short to somewhere else. I'd say pull all your taillight bulbs and see if it still does it. Sort of a bit of work but it's helped me a few times.

 

you know i don't even have the bulbs in the back light sockets of my tail lights because im putting the T/A bumper on so there off maby that could be the reason? what you think. i didn't really mess with anyting under the dash besides put the fog lights in but it was already doing that.

 

My IROC is plauged with the same problem! Looks kinda funny when all of the interior and exterior lights come on when I hit the brake pedal. Does your warning sig come on when you depress the brake before start up also?

 

The brake lights and switch are pretty much isolated from the gauges (the lighting I mean).
The only thing that kind of ties them anywhere is the 'audio alarm assy.' (door chime thingy in the convenience center)
You could try pulling that real quick and see if that stops the problem.

 

Hey, my 1st post here. I picked up a 88 Iroc as a daily driver and my car has the same problem. I did a search and it could be bad brake light bulbs. Did you get it corrected? What was the problem? Thanks in advance.

 

Well, I replaced all my rear bulbs and everything is perfect now. Someone used wrong bulbs in 2 of the sockets.

 

Blown c-5 is right. Check out all the rear tail light bulbs. The brake light bulbs only should be partno#1157 and just the two rear reverse lights should be partno#1156. I hope that answers your question.

 

Don't forget the possibility of the sockete themselves. There is a good reason any auto parts store sells them and not very pricey

 

I too was plauged with this problem for months.... and found the problem to be that the hatch release ground wire was wired to brake light ground. Sounds proper but, when I disconnected it the problem went away.

If there's been any re-wiring done in the rear hatch area of your car, check it out.

Good luck