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Hi, I'm trying to help a friend troubleshoot a problem with her 2003 honda civic. Sorry she can't tell me the model, but it as a 2003 civic with ABS.

Both the brake warning light and the ABS warning light are on. My question is, are they interrelated?

I was thinking that it should be possible to have an ABS warning light on, but not have the brake warning light on. For instance if a wheel sensor failed, I would think that would trigger the ABS light, but not the normal brake warning light.

If my assumption above is true, I would expect the opposite of the contrary (there is a mind warp!). If the normal brake warning light was on.... it might trigger the ABS light to come on, even if the ABS is working normally. For example, perhaps low brake fluid would trigger the normal light, which in turn would be sufficient reason for the computer to shut off the ABS.

Does anyone have any experience with this and can verify my assumptions or tell me how the two lights relate?

 
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its too long so i didnt read it all lol. but there is no brake warning light on our cars. only the ABS light. the light you are probably referring to is the emergency brake light which is not related to the ABS light. the normal things that cause the ABS light to trip is a blown ABS fuse or a loose ABS sensor.

 
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yea i would first go with low brake fluid. than if its not that go have the abs code read on a scan tool at Honda. autozone or any of those places usually cant read code like abs and srs.

 
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if the abs is not working sometimes it will also trigger the hand brake light I know cause my car does it. brakes work perfectly fine just no ABS and the ABS light is on and the hand brake light is on.

I know it is tide into the wheel sensor. I believe it has to do with the rear wheel sensor if it goes bad it also triggers the handbrake light to let you no it is one of the back ones. But I haven't followed up to much on it cause as long as my ABS does not work I'm happy.

and you can't read the ABS codes with regular scan tool it has to be done with the honda tablet pc cause the abs codes are not linked to the OBD2 codes so it can't be read at autozone.

 
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im pretty sure our cars have a low brake fluid light it looks like (!) and it could be related to abs yes. the handbrake has its own text light to say its pulled up (BRAKE). abs diagnosis is tricky, only dealer will touch it

 
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ok first gearbox your kinda right. the (!) is also the (BRAKE) light. same tjust dependant on where the car was made. U.S. vs. Canada for ex. U.S. has the text while canada and other contreys i'm assuming have the symol.

as for pulling ABS codes. u dont need to go the the stealership to get a code they cant or wont fix w/o $$. in your OBD2 conector u'll find a BRN/YEL at pin 4 and a BRN at pin 9. if u short them together w/ a scrap piece of wire or small paperclip then the ABS, SRS, and Check Engine Light will blink diagnostic codes. with the ABS beeing the easyiest to decode.

 
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good info

 
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ABS is no harder than any other electrical circuit on the car. First step is get the code read. Post up what code it is and we'll go from there. If you cant get the code read then check these things first.....
brake lights
fluid level
wheel bearings not loose
visually broken wheel speed sensor wires
fuses

These are 90% of all ABS failures, and all others can be diagnosed with a DVOM and time.