Does the 2003 Mazda Protege ES have a switch on brake pedal to activate?
Asked by pcwills Apr 05, 2013 at 11:46 AM about the 2003 Mazda Protege5 4 Dr STD Wagon
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
My car wouldn't start. I called dealership. They said I would need to put foot on brake, take car out of park, then back in park again. It started. Does this indicate something wrong or working as designed? One person said it may have switch on brake pedal as a safety mechanism? Never heard of it.
4 Answers
Many cars have that so you can not get it out of Park unless your foot is on the brake. But you should not have to do that every time ..if it happened only the one time not to worry, but the device does exist as a safety feature
There's sometimes a couple of switches on the brake pedal. One is for the brake lights. There's a second one for cruise control, moving the shift lever out of park and cutting the throttle. The "cutting the throttle" one is new and found on cars with the electronic throttle control. It prevents the run away condition that Toyota owners experienced a few years back. It also prevents having one foot on the brake and reving the gas for a quick take off.
Yep, drive by wire. That's the term. No more spinning the engine up with the brakes on.
