When it's my turn,please send it to
Bud Ullman
box 957
chiloquin, OR 97624

 

The saga continues...

Commuting to work this morning, sunny, 65degrees out, light suburban street traffic. All was good with the world, birds were chirping, even.

Suddenly, dashboard lights up, and it ain't the pleasant blinking green auto idle stop - it's the red and orange ABS, VSA Active, VSA, and BRAKE lights. I gingerly tap the brakes - still working. Hit the VSA off manual override - no change in the lights. Proceed very cautiously to the next light - no auto idle stop. Ugh. Cell speed dial the Honda dealer; appointment at lunchtime. Park the car. Ignition off. Start up at lunchtime - no lights. Hrmph. Makes debugging diagnosis tough for the dealer.

Just got the call back from the dealer service, and guess what was found?

Nothing. No error codes logged in the DLC. Come pick the car up. It's fine. Really. May not ever come back. Oh yeah, and we did a software update, maybe that'll fix it.

 

I had exact same thing happen on my HAH. Turning the engine off and back on caused the lights to go away just like yours. When dealer pulled codes, they found a code for VSA solenoid malfunction. They tested the solenoid and it passed their test. So they asked me to keep an eye on those lights and if they ever light up again, drive straight to the dealer, not turn engine off and they will look at it. This was some 5 months back.

 

Good to know other HAHs have the same problem, with the car and Honda service. Somewhat surprising that Honda is being this cavalier with not fixing life-critical systems such as brakes and vehicle stability control.

 

I can imagine it would be hard to fix a problem that's intemittent and doesn't leave any signs of the cause when the engine is turned off. I'm sure if they knew what the problem was then they'd fix it. But without knowing what to troubleshoot, it's nearly impossible to repair a problem.

Sorta related, but in a different context, I see similar type problems at my job. Someone will report a vague problem, we'll send techs to try to figure out what was wrong, they'll come back in saying "could not duplicate", then the next day the same operator will complain of the same problem and be pissed it wasn't fixed. When I suggest they stick around when the problem occurs and wait for the tech to show up so that they can show the tech what they did and the error codes that pop up they get upset about having to "waste their time waiting on a tech." I try to remind them that the time they're spending to show the tech the problem now will save them a lot of wasted time later when the equipment is still down and we're trying to diagnose a phantom malfunction. They usually grumble under their breath, but they stick it out and wait for the tech.

If anyone else has similar probles with the indicator lights on the dash, follow what gonehiking said and next time those lights are illuminated, get to a dealership right away and have them look at it before turning the car off. Hopefully, they'll be able to remedy the problem.

I'm just over 40K miles, and the only repairs my car ever required was the rotors were turned (and one relaced) somewhere around 25K and the driver side power door lock actuator was replaced at around 37K.