Vehicle Scare

The other day, I was driving my 9, almost 10, year old vehicle to work.  On my way, I noticed the dashboard light for my emergency brake was on.  I thought it was odd because I could not recall using my emergency brake recently (especially since I had just left my garage).  Anyways, at the next red light I hit the emergency brake (it's a foot pedal) to see if it was engaged and it was not.  However, hitting the pedal and then releasing it caused the light to go off.  I thought that maybe a fuse was going bad in the dashboard. The light did not come back on again, at anytime during my drive back to work.

However, on my way home from work the light came back on again, but it flickered.  Sometimes when I took a turn the light would come on and then go off again.  A mile or two from home it came on again.  This time it did not go off. All I could think was what a huge expense it would be to repair whatever was wrong. Instant stress and panic!

 I decided to google the problem and found that toyota makes the emergency brake light and the brake fluid light one and the same. My brake fluid was low! Seriously, the dealership is supposed to check all of my fluids! Wow.

Anyways, the next morning I decided to get some brake fluid from the local autoparts store on my way to work.  On my way there several other lights lit up on my dashboard.  It looked like a Christmas tree! I considered, momentarily, just driving across town to have it fixed. Instead, I drove to the store and got the brake fluid.  I poured it in right in the parking lot.  I turned on the ignition and all of the lights went off.  Apparently, the lower the fluid gets causes the car to go into a safety mode. The safety mode will turn off all unnecessary functions.  The light has not come on again since. 

The cost of brake fluid $3.54....or priceless.  Lol.