P2299: Brake Pedal Position and Accelerator Pedal Position Incompatible
What to do
Check whether the brake lights stay on when the pedal is released — that costs nothing, needs no tools, and a stuck brake light switch is the most common cause of this by a wide margin. It also explains other oddities on the same car, since that switch usually controls cruise control, shifting out of park and stop-start too. If you brake with your left foot, mention it, as applying both pedals genuinely sets this on some vehicles. If the accelerator pedal ever feels like it is not returning, or something may be trapping it, treat that as urgent rather than as a fault code — check the floor mat is not displaced and have it looked at straight away.
What this code means
The module is being told the brake and the accelerator are applied at the same time, and has cut throttle in response. This is a safety interlock working, and understanding that changes what to do about it.
Why the interlock exists. Brake-over-accelerator authority became standard after a series of unintended-acceleration incidents: if both signals arrive together, the vehicle is required to treat the brake as the one that wins. Cutting the throttle to idle is not the module malfunctioning — it is the module doing precisely what it was designed to do with a combination it has been told is impossible.
The consequence is that the fault is usually in the reporting, not the pedals. Something is claiming a pedal is pressed when it is not, and the module cannot distinguish that from a genuine two-footed input.
The leading cause is the brake light switch, and it is both cheap and free to check. A switch that has slipped its adjustment, or whose plunger no longer returns, reports the brake as applied continuously. Every time the driver then accelerates, the module sees both pedals and cuts power — which presents as a car that suddenly will not pull away, or loses power on acceleration for no visible reason.
The check costs nothing and anyone can do it: look at whether the brake lights are on with the pedal released. A brake light switch stuck on gives permanently lit brake lights, and that single observation converts a baffling power loss into a specific cheap part. It also explains a cluster of unrelated-looking complaints on the same car, since that switch is typically also used to disengage cruise control, permit shifting out of park, and enable stop-start.
The other explanations are worth naming because two of them are not faults at all:
- Left-foot braking. Drivers who brake with the left foot genuinely do apply both pedals momentarily, and on some vehicles that is enough to set this. It is a real input, not a fault.
- Something physically holding the accelerator down — a displaced floor mat, a trapped object, or a pedal that is not returning. This one deserves immediate attention rather than diagnosis, because a stuck accelerator is dangerous in a way the code is not.
- A genuine accelerator pedal sensor fault, which normally brings the codes at P2120–P2140 with it.
Likely causes
Start here
- Faulty brake light switch · easy
Less common
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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