intermittent brake light error message

I recieve an intermittent message "brake light failure - check owners manual" on my 1995 325is manual trans. The message first appeared 4 months ago, did not appear for the next 3 months, now it itermittently comes back every 2 days or so. All fuses and bulbs are OK. Brake lights function OK. Has anyone experienced this problem ?
Also, whiletrying to troubleshoot the problem I discovered that the reverse lights do not work at any time.

The brake light switch behind the brake pedal is bad. Just happened to my 97. Inexpensive fix. Do it youself thing.

I have the same thing on my 97 328i. Sometimes I go back and wiggle the lightbulb housings from inside the trunk. Most of the time I ignore it and the next time I start the car it's gone. All the lights work...

Thanks for your reply.
The brake lights work fine which leads me to believe that the switch behind the brake pedal is OK. But I'll check it out.
The error message has now disapeared for 3 days. Very strange.

replace the brake switch behind the pedal. if you were to take apart your old switch what you would find would be very burnt up contacts seems to be that the leads for one side are under sized and heat up causing the contacts to burnup resulting in the brake failure error. I did have this happen to my 97 328is. you may need to beat you fingers with a hammer so they will fit in the pedal area to replace the switch

I've been having this problem as well...but I notice it happening after a wash or rain. Could water be getting somewhere that would effect this switch or the tail lights?

I had the same problem. the cause of my message light was the sensor on the brake light cap. The sensor termination was loose. I put some dielectric grease in the terminal, and the problem is gone....for now anyway!

next time your going to wash your car first check all the rear bulbs to make sure there dry. wash the back of the car and the check them again that's how you may find out if its getting shorted by water. maybe the grease trick would work for you but if it's from water you will want to find the leak first.

I was getting the same error; tried bulbs, switches, tuner cleaner, etc. I finally fixed it by slightly bending in the contact prongs in the tail light socket. That didn't cost a dime and I haven't had the problem return since.