Got a message from the wife yesterday saying a friend needed help with her car. Bear with me as it's like playing the old school game of telephone here... Haha. "Friend has a 2010 forester. It died the other day. They cleaned the battery, and it worked. She went to leave and it starts fine, but she doesn't have any lights on the dash. When she brakes, all the lights start flashing. Wouldn't read a code.... Any ideas?" I sent my multimeter with her to work today to check the battery and alternator voltages. She said the alternator seems to be working. I asked if it was still doing the thing and she said: "Yes. It was fine and we drove it around the lot. As soon as she pulled into a spot and hit the brakes, it shakes a little, and the headlights turn off." She sent me a video of them driving in the parking lot and you can see when she presses the brake pedal the DRL's shut off, and then come back on when she lets off the brakes again. Obviously there's something weird going on. My suggestions prior to this were to clean the grounds and check the voltages. Seems like everything obvious is okay. Thoughts?
Like eluded to by Vector. Likely an intermittent short or bad ground. I would start with inspecting any sensors/wiring around the area of the depressing pedal.
Has anyone "fixed" anything recently? Like replacing a tail or stop lamp with an incorrect one that has a different number of conductors on the base?
