First Post here! I love this forum, and I love my new Civic. I think I just hit my engine break in, think I will average around 48 mpg this tank. Pretty cool. My civic is less than a couple of months old. Tonight while driving through a dark country back road I had to brake pretty hard to avoid hitting an opossum (thought it might be a deer at first, road is known to have many deer, the movement caught my eye). Not sure if I hit the opossum or not. I believe the anti-lock breaks kicked in I heard just a few short wheel locks. About 5 miles down the road after this, my "brake system" idiot light came on, although everything seemed to be operating fine, I think even the regenerative braking seemed to be ok. I drove the rest of the 20 miles home as normal, the light stayed on the whole time. When I got home to the driveway I turned the car off and then turned it back on. The "brake system" light stayed off. Be interesting to see if it lights back up tomorrow on the drive in. Anybody have any similar occurences?

 

<ivi>,

I've never had this problem. If it happens again I would suggest having the dealer or nearest Honda garage scope it out. Welcome to GH. Best of luck with your new ride!

Regards,

 

Drove it to and from work today (40 miles each way). No lights. Hopefully whatever it was worked itself out. Car seems to be running fine.

 

I had my brake light (the amber one no the red one) turned on driving this morning. I drove the car to the dealer to have it checked right away, they tell me that the light is not on anymore and they don't see any other problems. The car is a 2006 HCH and has 27k Km on it (16,700 miles).
They are going to do some more checking because I hear noises when I stop that I don't hear in the other identical hybrid we have.

Anyone else with similar issues ?

 

After having the car checked and been assured that there was nothing wrong, I now get the amber brake light on most of the time. I have also noticed tha the auto-stop feature never kicks-in while the brake light remains on.
I can get the brake light turned off and auto-stop to work again by shutting off the engine and restarting it, then after 5 minutes or so the light is back on and no more auto-stop.
My car is back to the dealer today and I really feel that this is related to the IMA somehow, maybe the "regenerating brake of the IMA motor" ...whatever that is.

 

Might not be far off on that guess, ivi -- the IMA controller knows when the brakes are on (and how hard), presumably via the same sensors the anti-lock system uses. (msantos?) That you're getting both the brake system light *and* no autostop suggests that whatever sensor(s) both systems use are sending a screwy signal. That should narrow the list of things to look for.

btw, if you're not already doing so, make sure that when you're at the dealer you don't shut the car off until someone sees the light and diagnoses it. If it's resetting when you cycle the ignition, that's probably why they didn't find anything before.


--d

 

My car is fine now. The dealer was able to read a code 72 and replaced a "brake padel switch" (or pedal switch ?) ...covered under warranty.

I'm a happy camper again !

 

When the light goes off it just means that your system detected an error and has shut off ABS. Brakes should still work with no ABS. To reset the ABS system all you need to do is pull over and turn off the car. Then restart it. This should clear out the problem. If the light comes on immediatly afterwards or comes on during regular braking, you should take it to a dealer.

The light normally comes on under extrene braking. I can trick the system to turn off ABS (light comes on) by hitting the brakes while having one wheel skid over a manhole cover. This tricks the system into thinking ABS is not working because one wheel rotates while the other locks up due to the cover sliding.

 

That's actually a little disappointing -- anti-lock systems are perfectly used to having individual wheels lock while other wheels still roll. The designers anticipate everyday situations where one wheel might have less traction than another (water puddling on a highway, partially plowed roads, loose gravel shoulders). The system simply takes its cue from a locked wheel under braking and modulates the system. (For a front wheel, in a 3- or 4-channel system it will modulate just that brake, while in a 2-channel system it will modulate both front brakes together.) (Thinking about this makes me realize, I have no clue whether the Civic has a 2-, 3-, or 4-channel ABS system. Anybody know?)

If your ABS system truly thinks it has a *malfunction* when just one wheel locks under braking, maybe you need to get the health of the system checked. Its thinking seems malfunctional.

--d

 

civic has 4 channel abs.

It makes sense to me that if the system can't figure out why one wheel remains locked even though the system is pulsating that brake (corner) that the system goes into fail safe mode. Otherwise, why should the light ever go on?