ABS Light Stays On

Hi All,

Ran this writeup at the .org(?) site also but didn't want to miss anyone.

Just ran in to a new problem (for me). My 2005 SWing sat in my unheated garage for about 2 months and as expected, the battery went dead. I jumped it from my car, put my gear on, and headed down the highway to charge it back up. The ABS light that is suppose to go out above 5 mph or so remained on for my 6 mile round trip into our little village and back. Stopped, restarted, and accelerated to higher speeds several times... light stayed on. A visual inspection of the main brake components didn't reveal any discrepancies. Brakes "seemed" to work okay.

Checked the troubleshooting guide in the service manual and saw that there were several electrical circuits to be checked with a meter but that's not my strong suit. The most obvious thing I saw was to remove the left body panel and check a 30 amp system fuse for being blown. Guess I'll try that tomorrow. Barring that, I reckon I'm looking at a trip to the dealer. Thought I"d hit you guys up first though to see if there was anything else "more" obvious to check first. Thanks.

Morning DickO

I was having a similar problem with my Deauville last year.

Dealer told me that one of the main causes for ABS light to stay can be an undercharged / faulty battery.

DickO, here's hoping it's something real simple.

I would be happy, nay, ecstatic if it was simply the battery drain. I'd settle for a blown fuse but that may mean finding out why such a large fuse blew.

Fingers crossed for you.

I don't have any explanation for why I would try the following tip other than to say it worked on a Jeep Cherokee "Check Engine" light once upon a time.

Disconnect the battery for a minute or so. Then reconnect.

As I said, might not help in your case, but it is simple and FREE. Hope it is something as simple.

DickO,

I'm going to guess that your battery is probably the original battery. If so I'd posit the theory that a replacement battery will resolve the issue.

I'm guessing here, but think this procedure might reset a number of items (like it works for the belt light)

Hold down the two buttons on the instrument panel and then turn on the ignition....hold for possibly ten seconds, and then start up the motor.

Nothing lost if it don't work.

As a former Service Director for Honda/Acura for many years, it has been my experience that Honda ABS ecu's don't take kindly to too low or too high system voltages. I would suggest you check the fuses, remove the battery connections and either fully charge the battery or replace it. If the problem still persists, a visit to the dealer is in in order to have the ABS diagnosed for possible damage from voltage surge at jump start. Good luck.

As a tip for everyone- make sure your ignition switch is turned off before attaching any type of battery jumper or charger. The voltage surge possible can damage many delicate electronic circuits!

Hi Again,
And thanks to everyone for their input on this problem. Family matters haven't let me get to the bike yet and it looks like 5 - 8 inches of snow tomorrow and Monday is going to preclude any quick-time scoots down the highway anyway. Will let you all know what I finally come up with. Thanks again.

Hi All,
Very belated info on the resolution to my ABS problem stated above. Finally got a chance to get out of my driveway today; the snow finally melted enough. Anyway, because of the cold, I took the battery out and stored it for a week or a little longer and then stuck it back in to run the bike in the garage again. Took it out once more until yesterday to start the bike again just to make sure I'd be able ride it in to the big city for any possible repair.

As I said before, the snow was melted enough to clear the driveway so I threw on my gear to make a run down the county byway. Lo and behold ! ! The ABS light went out just as it was suppose to. Checked the "integrity" of the system as best I could and all seemed well. I guess it was just removing and reinstalling the battery that must have performed some sort of reset on the system (a la Opalsboy). At least that's my guess too. But wanted to let everyone know what the outcome was. Thanks again for everyone's input.

By the way... I'm gonna' go buy o'them-there little "battery tender" thingies tomorrow.

Dick,

I'm glad you found the solution to your problem. I guess in this case I'm lucky not to have ABS so I will never have that problem. I also didn't think Kansas got that much snow. Is this normal? I'm from Illinois and we got snow but I thought Kansas was a bit further south and didn't get that kind of snow. Good luck and hope you get to ride more.

Also, you don't need to say " the .org site (?). You can go ahead and give the entire name, www.silverwing.org , since we don't censor here. Thanks.

Hi JeffR,
Yes, having to pay for extra problems with ABS can be a pain. I was just lucky this time and a big load was lifted off my shoulders when everything worked like it did. With the weather starting to moderate a little more now, maybe I'll be able to hit the road again.

And yes, we are seeming to get what "use" to be ordinary snowfall amounts around here now. Have had 3 snows this past month and are expecting another in a few days. Back in the '50's, as a kid, I can remember getting snows all the time, especially blizzards at least once a year ('course, I was walking to school too, both ways up hill, if I remember correctly); then went into the service and wasn't around anymore to keep track but the last 8 or so years haven't been near as bad as the last two most recent years.

I taught school in Kansas one year back in 1966-67. We got two rains(the day I moved in and the day I moved out), one snow (11" during Christmas break)... LOTS of wind... and if my memory is correct, there were NO hills to walk to school up or down...

BTW Jeff... I have adjusted to the ABS brakes very easily. Big difference. I haven't completely gotten use to them yet, but very nice to have.

Great news DickO, At least it was easy, cheap and quick to resolve.

Great guys on here, at least one answer cured a members problems.

Good news, free fixes are the best fixes.