beeson76

I have a 2006 Honda Civic EX. After changing the back passenger side wheel bearing the ABS light came on...intermittantly. I drove it like that for about 5 months and finally got tired of the Brakes clicking every 2 minutes or so. Then when the light came on it stopped. After about 5 months I wanted to fix the problem so I ordered a new sensor. This weekend, I took the wheel bearing off just to make sure there was no problem with it and found that it was really dirty inside. So I cleaned it out really good. And since I had the new sensore I decided to just go ahead and changed that too. Now the ABS light is on permanently. Its better now that its on permanently because I don't get the clicking but now I would like to have ABS Brakes

So I did a lot of research and found the Service Connector on the fuse Box under the Driver dash board. Jumped those pins to get the codes on the odometer display. All it says is "no". There was no codes at all. So I held the Reset for 10 seconds to clear anything out if there was anything in the memory. But it has not helped. What should be my next course of action. I don't really want to take it to a dealership to clear the ABS Indicator Light but I hate indicator lights on the dash board. Is there any other thing I should do to try to clear or reset the ABS Indicator Light? Or do I need to use the HDS (Honda Diagnostic System) to clear this light instead of the jumper option. I did some research and it looks like the need the 07PAZ-001010A to use the jumper option but I simply used aluminum foil to jump the 2 pins.

Any help is greatly appreciated very much. This is driving me crazy

Thanks

ezone

This is not how to get codes, I think you may have found the yellow plug for the SRS memory erasing.

The old SCS wire was moved into the OBD2 plug.
I'm not real sure the ABS system can give flash codes....I use only the HDS scantool.

beeson76

Thanks Ezone.

Is there an HDS Scantool that you would recommend that CAN reset the ABS Indicator Light? Or would this only be a HDS that a dealership would have or one that would cost a lot of money to purchase?

We have an OBDII computer that can read codes but it will not reset or erase the codes causing the ABS Indicator Light.

Thanks again for your reply Ezone.

ezone

Can it at least READ the ABS codes?

HDS stands for 'Honda Diagnostic System', it is the dealer level scantool.

I don't know what aftermarket tools will support ABS diagnostics, but surely some will. Might not be cheap though.

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Wheel bearing, was it aftermarket?
Speed sensor, was it aftermarket?

The encoder ring embedded in the wheel bearing is very susceptible to damage from magnets.

But if you don't really know what fault codes the system has, you might be barking up the wrong tree.

beeson76

Thanks Ezone for the nice answers.

I am pretty sure both parts are aftermarket. The wheelbearing is from Autozone and the Sensor is from an Ebay Auction. I bought it cheap but from what I thought a very reputable seller.

I really have no idea about the encoder ring on the Wheel Bearing being damaged by magnetics.

Would a cheap ODBII tool from Harbor Freight read the codes? Because we checked it and it "appeared" like no codes were available. Or would this also require a HDS.

I really appreciate the answers and I have many more but I will go about answer them a few a time.

Thanks again Ezone.

ezone

Sure can, all it takes is another magnetic field to ruin it.

During a front wheel bearing installation (pressed into a steering knuckle), one guy in the shop tried to pick up a small piece of metal debris from a bearing with a pocket screwdriver magnet and ruined the ring, he didn't get that figured that out it was installed and on the test drive...

and you can't see magnetic damage just by looking at it.











I check the encoder ring on every bearing I get before installation with the simple tool shown in the pic. It can show if the ring is damaged....... but it can't really show the strength of the field as mentioned in this last pic, and this is a typical problem with aftermarket/white-box/inferior/counterfeit parts.



I can't answer that....
I don't know what aftermarket tools will support ABS diagnostics, but surely some will. Might not be cheap though.

OBD2 is only a powertrain diagnostics designation, an average OBD2 code reader won't touch anything but engine and trans. Read the literature with the tool to see if it covers more than just OBD2.

ABS is not part of OBD2, just like SRS, Immobilizer, HVAC, MICU (body computer), and more, are not part of it.


The warning light doesn't stay on for no reason. I'm sure there is a fault code to be found.

beeson76

Wow. Awesome post Ezone. Thanks.

So the magnetic ring is very sensitive. Had no idea. So the question I guess I need to ask is this: So it sounds like the Indicator Light does NOT need to be reset but rather will go off on its own when no problems are detected? So once the problem is corrected, the Indicator Light will go off on its own.

So if I would take it to a dealership what would be the best way to correct this problem without spending a lot of money? Should I ask them to just see if there are any error codes and if they are, what are they? Would they tell me that information? I need to get my oil changed so this would be a good time to do it I guess. About what is an average cost of them connecting it to the HDS and diagnosing it for me from your experience with the situation? And would the HDS reading tell me if the error is in the Wheel Bearing or the sensor.

Does this sound consistent with following information:
1. I replaced the back driver side wheelbearing with the exact brand Autozone wheelbearing and everything went really well. No problems with Indicator Lights or anything.
2. When I replaced the back passenger wheelbearing, I drove it about 20 miles before the Indicator Light came on. Then the light would be intermittant. It would come and go. When it was off I could hear the clicking and feel the clicking in the break. When it was on, the clicking and the feeling went away.
3. I then took the wheelbearing back apart and clean the wheelbearing with just normal sensor cleaning fluid. I replaced the sensor at the same time. After this the Indicator Light was on full time.

Thanks again for all the help Ezone. I appreciate it very much and I am learning a lot

ezone

I can't say one way or the other, there are different types of faults.

A hard fault may be stored in EEPROM, which would need a scan tool to erase the code.
A soft fault can allow the warning light to extinguish after passing a self test...wheel speed issues can fall into this category.

In the shop we cause this regularly, raising a car in the air and letting driven wheels spin...while non-driven wheels are not spinning. Warning lights come on and codes are set regarding a lack of speed input from the non-spinning wheels. Same situation might be seen after spinning wheels on ice. The 'fault' seen by the computer is nonexistent as soon as the key is cycled and the car moves with all 4 wheels moving at the same speeds again. Engineers at least thought of this ahead of time and allowed the warning lights to go out.

But if you unplug a wheel speed sensor and try the same thing, it may set a hard fault.


I'm not going to tell you your code will be erased on its own, because we have no idea what the code is at this point.



I will say that if you can read and erase the fault codes on your own, it might be fairly easy to swap parts side to side to figure out where the problem lies. Assuming the issue is in the corner you were working on.


You might also consider removing the aftermarket parts and installing factory parts. Check online Honda dealer catalogs for wholesale prices?
One of many: www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/

Ask your dealership.
Ask for the rocket scientist to fix the car, not the oil change kids.
It will cost you money.
It needs to be broken when it arrives there.

Tell them what you have done already. When they hear you installed aftermarket parts, they may just tell you it needs factory parts. We say this for a reason, I'm sometimes guilty of it too.

Carefully reading the definition of the fault code is important. The written definition in the scantool or service manual can tell you a lot if you understand it.

Since you say this problem began after installing the aftermarket bearing/hub assembly, I might say to just yank it out and buy one from Honda this time.
If that solves the problem.... great.