Honda Brakes
This week we had a customer come in concerned about his ABS light being on and his Honda Brakes were causing the entire car to shake when slowing down. The first step was verifying the concern. This is done through a simple road test where the Technician will drive the vehicle and see that the ABS Light is in fact on and that the brakes are pulsating (causing the car to shake when the brakes are pressed).
Honda ABS Light Repair
From there we use a factory scan tool to access the ABS module. This tool will pull a sequence of numbers (code) that leads us to a troubled area in the system. Then we diagnose accordingly. In this case the right front ABS Sensor was broken off and hanging down. The purpose of this sensor is to measure wheel speed at each individual wheel. There are 4 ABS Sensors in total.
As you can see, the magnetic portion of the sensor is completely missing. It would appear to be a somewhat recent break
The next issue to address was finding out where the brake pulsation was coming from. In this case it was obvious to the Technician that the pulsation was coming from the front brakes. What happens here is the brake rotor (metal disc that the brake pads press against) should be a nice flat surface. Unfortunately over time the rotor has become a little bit “wavy”, the technical term is “excessive run out”. It’s a very common issue caused by the heating and cooling of the brakes during normal operation and sometimes by a driver that’s a little bit hard on their brakes.
After we were able to identify the cause of each customer concern the Technician performed a 55 point inspection on the vehicle. The point of this inspection is to make sure we have a firm grasp on the overall condition of the vehicle. If we call a customer and tell them they need “$xx.xx amount in repairs”, their next question is always “Is there anything else wrong with the vehicle?” So the inspection will check all safety items, maintenance items, and other systems that allow the vehicle to function like new every single day. We perform a 55 point inspection on most vehicles (unless the customer tells us otherwise) and this is always complimentary.
Nice and new top quality Honda Brakes
Honda Brake Repair
We ended up replacing the front brake pads, front brake rotors, changed the engine oil, and replaced some filters. For the ABS concern we had to drill out the broken portion of the ABS Sensor so a new one could be installed. After all repairs were completed we took the vehicle for a road test to ensure that we addressed all of the customer’s concerns. It came out perfect!
From start to finish the job took about half a day and the customer had the vehicle back later in the afternoon. It wasn’t a particularly difficult repair but it was definitely necessary. When the ABS light is on there is always a possibility that the brakes will malfunction. The ABS light will also cause the car to fail State Inspection. So if this or any other warning light is lit up on your dash, it’s always a good idea to have it checked and properly diagnosed by trained Technicians sooner rather than later.
If your vehicle is in need of service or repair feel free to schedule here or give us a call at 413.363.0306.