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i apologize in advance for the post being so long- but i would really like your opinions on this.

i've got an unusual question for you- regarding my girlfriend's 03 civic:

i took it to merchants today for an oil change, tire rotation, and radiator flush. i found out later that wheel balancing was also included in the package. i know this sounds crazy, but when we picked it up, the abs light was on. i drove the car yesterday and the light was not on. my girl friend says the light was not on when she dropped it off this morning. it doesn't sound right because they didn't do anything related to the brakes. in the end i think everything worked out anyways because the light actually turned off on her way home. but it stayed on for about 5 minutes while it was idling in the parking lot, she also turned it off and then turned it back on to see if it would reset. can you guys think of any reason why this would happen? maybe it's no big deal and i'm worrying about nothing. do i need to do anything else?

i also have a generic question as far as how you guys would handle this stuff in the future and maybe even some input from mechanics. i realize people probably come in all the time with stuff that was already broken and try to say that the mechanic messed something up so i can see why a shop would be defensive about it. the first thing the mechanic told us was that they didn't do anything related to the brakes and whatever is wrong wasn't their doing- which makes sense to me, i didn't think that any work they did could mess with the abs. we had to push a little before he went to get the manager. both the manager and the mechanic seemed like decent guys but it seemed like they were giving us the stiff arm from the beginning. what i really wanted was for them to agree that there is a possibility that they caused the light to come on. let us take it to the dealer for diagnosis (because they said they didn't have the equipment for that) and if they find out something went bad and nothing to do with them, then we deal with it ourselves, but if it was something they did, then they would work with us on it. after going back and forth for a few minutes, he finally agreed to it. while we were discussing it, i asked if it was normal for them to see the abs light on and not tell the customer about it. he told me they do not report those things. i have never been in that situation so i wanted to ask you guys if that was accurate. also, he asked the mechanic who worked on it who told him he did not see the light on when he worked on it. how would you guys have handled it? was our proposed remedy reasonable? i kind of felt bad about it when we got home and the light had turned off. maybe i am worrying about nothing, but i will feel a lot better once i get some opinions from you guys.

anyways, thanks in advance for your input- i really appreciate it.

 
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normally if there's a warning light on, they tell you. it exonerates them from being responsible if you know its there before they start. Anyways..... Check the TSB list in the problems forum for ABS light issues. Second... the abs light being on and off leads me to believe its an intermittent short. attached to each wheel is a wire and a sensor for the system. Its on the back of the hub. you should easily be able to trace the wire. Finding the plugs is a little harder.... thankfully they're bright orange. The left rear one is up under the gas filler neck, the right rear one is in the trunk. Lift the carpet on the wall, there's a silver cover its under there. Unlikely it got knocked off from there though. I think the front ones are on the fender walls. Whats more likely, especially if they were rotating tires is that they pulled one ouf of the sensor, or pinched the wire. If the ABS light comes on repeatedly on startup and shuts off later, I'd have the ECU scanned for an error code. The light coming on should throw something. Once it goes off, does it ever come back on?
The obvious check... have you tried triggering the ABS with and without the light on?