2008 Aveo - Brake and battery indicator lights on dimly.

Hi - new to forum.

I have a 2008 Aveo with 105k on it. Very few problems so far, knock on wood. Last month I had a headlight go out so I replaced both as the other one usually goes out shortly thereafter. Last week the wife tells me that both the low beam head lights are out. I thought this was strange but I had kept the one old headlight as a spare and found out that I indeed blew both low beams out. I decided to take a short drive and in a mile or so I noted that the battery light was on. I turned around and went home. In the driveway the battery was dead as a doornail...classic symptoms of a bad alternator.

I replaced the alternator with one from NAPA, I noticed that the battery light was still on as well as the brake light, didn't notice the brake light when this all started, I may have missed it though. - did the dummy check with a meter on the battery, 13.2 volts when off, 13.5 at idle, 14.2 when held at about 2k rpms. Swapped the battery, drove about 70 miles with the AC and Brights on - battery is still charged fine. Brakes work fine.

Anyone have any thoughts on why I would have the alternator and brake lights on dimly when running? Secondly, I did notice that when I put on the parking brake BOTH the battery and the brake indicator lights go bright, not just the brake indicator.

Thans for any help offered,
Seahag

so there are no more actual running issues? do the headlights work again?

this sounds like a bad ground?

Yep, swapped out the second headlight and all are working. Engine, brakes charging are all fine.

so all the issue "might" be in the gauge cluster. or the common part of that harness.

Is anything else on at the time?

Thanks for your reply,

I checked out the grounds to the battery and the alternator is bolted down tight. I've tried running with various things in and off and on states with no real change except that both indicator lights get brighter when I pull the parking brake (both "brake" and "battery" lights) The thing that gets me is none of this was going on before the alternator failure.

I think I'm going to try and locate the wiring for that emergency brake switch and trace that back to its source - maybe I fried something there...thoughts?

I am having the same issue. I just recently replaced the oil and brake pads and after doing this the battery light and brake light came on and will not go off? My checking of the alternator is showing 12.5 volts. Never a dead battery though. Help me figure this out.

i am also having the same issue. my 2006 aveo just had the alternator replaced after 300k. the battery light is dimly lit in the daytime. an auto electitian pal told me the problem most likely was a blown diode in the instrument cluster. i checked them all by no problems found. i think im gonna change the ic on the display board just to see if it makes a difference. please note if your engine sounds like a diesel engine one day the bearing on your alternator may be bad

I have a 2007 Aveo with this same problem. The brake and battery lights are on and i cant figure it out. battery is not charging on mine and i would change the alternator but i know its shouldn't have anything to do with the brake light being on. Any help would be appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Demetrius

I have a 2007 Aveo with this same problem. The brake and battery lights are on and i cant figure it out. battery is not charging on mine and i would change the alternator but i know its shouldn't have anything to do with the brake light being on. Any help would be appreciated.

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Brake light and battery light on at the same time means the alternator is dead. Replace it and the lights will go away.