Brakes Lights Stay On, And Cel Also Is On With Vsc

[Jacksonman]

Greetings all. I have a 2008 IS350 with 12,090 miles. In January I had a remote starter installed (CompuStar 900 Pro). Hopefully this is irrelevant. Sunday my car was sitting quietly in the garage, and sometime between 9 and 11 at night the brake lights came on. Weird since no one was even near the car. They stayed on all night. Monday I drove the car to work and the brakes lights did NOT come on once parked, but eventually did. Intermittent on Monday. Today after driving about 8 miles, the check engine light and VSC light came on. Since then the brake lights have been lit non stop.

I have had no problems with the remote starter, although I haven't used it since winter has passed. When the brake lights are lit I do not need to press the brake pedal to start the car. I went to a remote starter installer today who looked it over. Nothing noticed. Compustar tech support was not aware of any similar issues. My Lexus dealer says sure bring it in for the check engine light, but they are confident that the brake light issue is not theirs. I, however, am not so sure now that the brake lights stay lit after the check engine light came on.

I am stumped and not sure what to do. Anyone have an opinion? I would love to get some thoughts.

Jacksonman

2008 IS350

[bartkat]

I would expect that the remote start would have to make the ECU think the brake pedal was depressed before you could remotely start the car. Since the brake lights are on and you don't have to push the brake pedal to start the car, then the problem has to be with that part of the remote start system. You can have the CEL read at any auto parts store. Get the code and that may give further clues.

[Jacksonman]

Well I'm off to the Lex dealer today for them to have a look. Hopefully they will take care of a customer who bought a new car less than 12,000 miles ago.

[smooth1]

They probably won't touch the "aftermarket" work.

[Jacksonman]

Lex tested the system, which reported a bad brake switch. I hoped that would be the end of the story. They replaced the switch but the brake lights remained lit. They suspected that the remote starter relay had malfunctioned, sending a signal that the brakes were pressed. Evidently all the safety features in these cars threw the CEL.

Today it went to the remote starter installer who took the bypass module out and tried to reflash the cartridge. The cartridge proved to be bad, and they replaced with a new one. Reprogrammed, reinstalled, and out the door I went :). Now I just hope the Lex isn't the cause of the cartridge failing.