brake light on 1999 altima

My buddy owns a repo company and has a 1999 Nissan Altima 4-Cyl for a spotter car. He called me and said that the brake lights are on for no reason and will not go off, whether the car is running or not, the only way get them to turn off is to pull the fuse. I checked the switch at the brake pedal and it seems fine, I even pulled the plug from the switch and the lights stayed on. The problem is even allowing the shifter to be moved without pushing the brake pedal. Has anyone heard of this problem or something similar and have a solution. Please, if we don't get this figured out soon, it looks like I'm going to have to run a new wire to bypass the factory wiring. Thanks.

The only thing I can think of is a defective brake switch.  Are you sure you removed or checked the brake switch? 

fried wiring, that's all i can think of. go back and check all wiring.

the shifter moving in and out of park without the brake pedal pushed in is typically a mechanical feature, which runs independently of the electronics related to the brake pedal switch.

but with a repo company running an 11 year old nissan (or anything for that matter) i'm gonna go with crossed wires somewhere.

The transmission lock is a mechanical device.  But it is engaged and disengaged  by the same wire that powers the lamps. 

i would say the brake switch is gone.

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Ted
2nd Year Tier 1 Medical School
Still installing as a hobby...pays for groceries
Compustar Expert

Sure you were looking at the brake switch and not the cruise cancel switch? (if it has cruise of course)

I'm sure I checked the brake switch, what I did was pull the plug with the two wires on the brake pedal, the same one I would tap into for a remote start. Once that was removed, the brake lights remained on, the car would still shift without depressing the pedal and I didn't try anything with the cruise because the car wasn't moving, I will try checking that out though. Although, I was under the impression that the cruise cancel wire was just tied into the brake light wire, as the transmission shift lock is. The mechanical end of the shift lock works fine as it will not shift when the key is not turned, and as for the post suggesting tampering with the vehicle due to it's current use (repo company), the car has never had so much as an aftermarket radio in it. It's a spotter car, nothing fancy, no cameras, no power inverter, nothing, all that stuff goes in the trucks.The car belonged to a middle-age lady before him, never been wrecked, so the problem isn't due to stupidity. Thanks for ya'll's help so far.

According to the wiring diagrams, there should be 2 switches above the brake pedal. One for brake lights and the order for cruise cancel. The cruise cancel switch is tied into the shift interlock circuit. Is it possible that the plugs for the 2 were swapped? The only reason I'm asking is because the brake lights and shift interlock are not in the same circuit.

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This information is provided only as a reference.
All circuits should be verified with a digital multi-meter prior to making any connections.