Intermittent brake light issues

My son's 1998 Ranger suddenly starting having intermittent brake light issues. I checked them last night and when I first pressed the pedal they didn't come on. I pressed it again and they worked fine. Crawled under the dash, found the brake light switch, but it seems to move around quite a bit. When I tilted it one way the lights came on without pressing the pedal.

Just wondering, did a bracket or something break? Should the switch be able to move around like that? I positioned it back and the brake lights are working fine, but I'm expecting this to be a recurring issue.

Ed

I had a similar issue on my 97 Taurus. There was a clip on the brake pedal itself that had worked loose and the blades on the sensor weren't making good contact with the pigtail/harness connected to it. Once I re-set it a couple times (the lock had halfway broken) it was making good contact and my brake lights worked fine. If there's nothing like that on the 98 Ranger I'd assume you may be correct in thinking a bracket or lock had broken.

A quick test would be to ask your son to depress the pedal a few times while you're looking at the switch you mentioned and see if it moves the same way each time, then compare that to the lights coming on or not.

Good luck and let us know.

The problem was indeed the 'stoplight' switch. $9.99 at Advance Auto Parts, took about ten minutes to install (only cause it can be a little hard to get to). Couple of things to remember:

1. When you get the part, you don't get a new clip or plastic sleeve.
2. Put the slotted side of the part toward the passenger side.
3. Put the sleeve on the left of the brake pedal.
4. Push the switch and the brake pedal to the right, piece of cake!
5. Reinsert the clip.

Here's a link to the part (http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_Stoplight-Switch-BWD_18971810-P_422_R%7CGRPSESWAMS_674008382___) in case you ever need it: