[round_midnight]

The switch I used looks exactly like the one in SantaFe66's picture. I got mine at my local Kragen Auto Parts for under $10. The big expense was the double flaring tool that's needed to flare the brake lines, and I had to go to several places to find the right adapters and fittings. It's important to make sure that there is no air in it when you install it (fill it with fluid before installation and install it in such a way that the open end points up) because trapped air will probably not bleed out. That may be the reason why some of them don't come on very well.

My understanding is that people were complaining about the hydraulic switches, so the importer started putting mechanical switches in after the cars were in the US, but I'm not completely sure of that. If they have gone back to hydraulic switches, I don't know anything about it.

The problem with the mechanical switch was that it is a normally open pull-type switch that is connected to the brake pedal with a spring. The switch was very cheaply made, and in my case, it would hang up and the force from the spring pulling it wasn't enough to make the contact. I messed around with it a couple of times to make it operate more smoothly, but it finally disintegrated. The switches that most manufacturers use are normally closed push-type switches that are mounted on a bracket so that the plunger on the switch is in contact with the pedal arm. Unfortunately there is no suitable place to mount that kind of switch on the BDR without making a custom bracket, and I think whoever installed the switches didn't want to go to that much trouble.

Hope this helps clarify things a bit.