I realise this may seem a mundane question but i am clutching at straws,2003 skoda octavia 1.9 tdi laurent and klement should the brake lights come on when the pedal is pressed without turning the key on in the ignition,confused.!!!

I think they should, yes.

Do they, or don't they?

I would have said no. I would have sworn no, in fact.....

 

But I have the exact same car and just tested this out.

They do indeed come on without the key in.

 

Well that line of searching has come to a dead end but what i cannot understand why then doe's the wiring diagram in the hayne's manual show the wiring for the brake lights coming from battery through battery fuses to relay plate and then to ignition switch then to fuses at drivers side then to  brake pedal switch and onward to rear brake lights,doing my head in trying to find reason now all 3 brake lights are working ,why the warning brake light not working comes on still and the yellow bulb and beep are all coming on,had it on 2 scanners and can't find a problem.

Haynes's wiring diagram is possibly for a version without bulb failure warning detection; yours clearly has this function. 

Are all your bulbs conventional filament/incandescent units?

I'll look at wiring info later if I get a chance.

First thanks for the replys ,yes lights are standard,exon headlights 7 or 8 push in for high levelbrake light even bought another high level brake light to try to no avail still got the problem,had car for near 7 years no problems till high level brake light went out,searched wiring left hand rear connectors all seam ok then started working again ok,but left with the problem light on dash beep and warning message,so there must be another under lying problem somewhere.

Or the bulb failure warning electronics might have (ironically) itself failed on this circuit?

Just been and taken out the foot brake switch off,sprayed with wd40 put the wire connector back on switch turned key on,  low and behold,no warning message no yellow bulb light on dash and no beep, refitted switch in situe , tried brakes no high level brake light low level working ok, have i found the problem could it just be the foot pedal brake switch that is the problem.?

A high resistance contact at the switch could make the warning system false-trigger I guess. No idea what's going on with the high level light.

Ordered a new one can only try,half way there maybe just maybe new one might solve problem,who knows with this sort of problem, elimination i guess is the way to go. thanks for at least trying to help it aint easy this type of problem,good on you.

News flash took brake pedal, brake switch off again to get numbers off to order new one put it back on again all 3 brake lights working, no light or beep on dash and no warning message, how good is that,never give up,there aint a problem without a solution,only taken 3 weeks but glad i am done, thanks for caring.

Happy days, but might be worth ordering a spare switch anyway, they don't seem to last quite as long as the cars do.

Must be an intermittent contact somewhere in the high-level light wiring, cos all three brake lights are powered through the pedal switch, so no obvious reason that tinkering with switch would affect just that. Maybe a nearly-busted wire between tailgate and car body?

I have ordered a new one and will fit when it arrives,as for wire from hatch to body spent too mutch time there i know where every bloody colour wire goes,if it is in tailgate,i havent got a cat in hells chance of getting to it without breaking the metal apart,so i am backing this brake switch until some other gremlin rears its head.cheers wino.  Hope my problem maybe helps some one else who maybe suffers the same symptons.

I had to replace that switch for a similar-ish reason.

Weirdly, the genuine replacement that I got from Skoda parts didnt sort the issue but a motor factors up the road from them had a pattern unit that did fix it ( and works to this day :)  )

Thanks for the reply,i too have heard similar regarding these switches one can be good another make can be useless,but hopefully i have sorted this now,i can only live in hope because it was making me lose the will to live.lol