This has happended twice now where I had severe ABS engagement and afterward the "Brake" light on the dash was stuck on. This is the same light that comes on when the parking brake is engaged.

What I found was that the float in the brake reservoir was stuck down and after poking at it with a small screwdriver it pops back up and the light goes off. After the first incident I topped off the fluid even though it was within the allowable range.

Anyone ever run into this?

The reason for severe ABS is another story...

 

Yup. No biggie.

 

I had the same thing happen on a car I used to co-drive, only we wound up replacing the reservoir and float to fix the problem (under warrantee). The brake light indicates low brake fluid reservoir levels as well as the parking brake lever being up, so that's the reason for your light and the reason it went away when the float raised up.

 

Same thing happen to me but I didn't find out till most of my fluid went away. I think it was after I change to DOT 4 but I don't understand where it all went. My brake light hasn't come on since though because I check it regular basis. But kinda scary when you think about it.

 

History...

Soon after I bought my car I changed out the brake fluid (about a year ago) and after filling it up the brake light was stuck on. This is when I first discovered that it got stuck and required releasing. At that time I thought that may be normal, but was not certain. I have had the ABS come on numerous times since, but at the last two autocross events it was heavy due to some bumps that got the front end light after brakes were applied. On both occasions the float in the reservoir got stuck down. I presume that the ABS activation temporarily uses enough brake fluid to allow the float to lower and get stuck.

I guess a new reservoir would solve this.