I have a 01 GTI VR6 with 50K miles on it. I recently have experienced the brake light staying on. Last week I just tapped the brake and it went off. Last night when I did that it turned off, but then shortly after that I noticed it was on again. The brake pedal is not depressed at all but I've had to lift up on it with my foot to get the brake lights to turn off. Otherwise, they pop back on within seconds to minutes. I've taken to jamming a gallon bottle underneath the brake to keep it up so my battery doesn't die. We are talking about 1 cm!

Help!

I take it that the brake lights in the rear are on , not the warning light on the dash. Sounds like a switch failure to me. The switch is self adjusting, but you can try resetting it before you replace it. The switch is on a bracket above the brake pedal and comes out with a 1/4 turn. Note there is a lock mechanism that engages when the switch is installed & improper installation will ruin the switch. These guys have a pretty good writ-up on how to do it:

http://www.golfclub.szm.sk/rada05/rada05.htm

Thank you so much. I'm going to give it a shot.