Brake, ABS, and VSC after HV Battery replacement

Those lights won't be on without codes, but sometimes people use scantools that don't report all the codes.

If you use the jumper-Tc-to-CG method and count the light blinks, you don't get as much information as a proper scanner would give you, but you will get the basic codes, and eliminate the what-scantool-did-you-use part of the question.

The codes will point the next direction. It could turn out to be something quite simple, perhaps something the battery installers disturbed without noticing. It could also be a coincidence; they do happen, and they're not always amazing.

-Chap

 

welcome! how many miles on her?
check the 12v.

 

There will be trouble codes and if there are not then a majority of the time it means the ABS/Skid Control isnt communicating. If not communicating chase that. More than likely that Actuator is junk. I have seen a lot of them throw no codes and no lights but no pedal, lights with codes but drives fine, and lights with no pedal and brakes awful with linear offset undone. Test it and make sure. Get a scan tool that can read ABS properly too.

 

Is there a way to reset the ABS? My 2012 will not start "READY" after replacing my 12v battery. I had previously been checking why the rear clearance light was not working.

 

I have the same problem in that I'm getting ((!)) ABS VSC without any codes showing up with Torque Pro. I do have a Mini VCI on the way, but in the mean time I tried the jumper method. ((!))=65 ABS=42 VSC=45.

I replaced the 12V several of months ago and it still has a strong charge. A couple of months ago I got the the whole dashboard lit up including the red triangle of despair. The code at that time was P0A80 and I decided to replace the modules rather than try whack-a-mole. I had the 12V out of the car while I replaced the HV modules with the NPB kit. I had no problem with that part and made sure that all the connectors that I put back made a nice click. Car started right up and seems to work well. However ((!)) ABS VSC didn't go away.

Any ideas/suggestions?

It's a 2004 with 190K

 

Welp, might need to wait for the MVCI to show up, or see if you can find those blink codes in a proper 2004 repair manual. I only have access to a 2006 at the moment, and it does list a 65 for the ((!)) light, which would be a hydraulic control issue to the left rear. There's a 42 listed for the ((!)) light but not for the ABS light, and a 45 listed for the ABS light but not the VSC light. Sometimes that seems to happen with the blink codes; I don't think they get quite as much editor attention when the repair manuals are revised as the scannable DTCs do.

 

Thanks for the quick response. I'll see what the Mini VCI says when it get here.

 

As an aside, Torque Pro should be able to interrogate and report the codes in those systems. Maybe you might look at your Torque Pro installation while you wait.

As another aside, you did clear any codes before starting the car after doing the HV battery work, didn't you?

 

I did try to clear the codes using Torque Pro before I decided to replace the HV modules, in that case the lights went off but then came back on a few minutes later. After getting the HV battery back in with the new modules, I was hoping that the codes might have cleared up, but they didn't except that the red triangle of despair had gone away. When I hooked up Torque Pro it returned no errors. I tried clearing them anyway and they didn't clear (or at least didn't go off and then come back on).

After reviewing questions here, I bought an OBD2 extension cable and tried the jumper between #4 and #13 and got the codes ((!))=65 ABS=42 VSC=45. I then tried the 8 taps of the brakes to see if they would clear and they didn't. The first time I tried it I made the mistake of leaving the jumper connected when I restarted the car. The next time I did the 8 taps, turned off the car, removed the jumper, and then restarted the car. The lights are still on.

I've been thinking about it, and there seem to be a lot of people with the same issue. The one thing in common seems to be that it's an older car and the owner just finished working on the 12V or the HV battery. It's not likely that so many people would have braking system failures immediately following battery work. Could it be that the associated ECU is getting reset due to the loss of power. When it wakes up, it's gone back to it's factory default state and the first thing it notices is that sensors are sending data that is not what it is expecting to see in a new car. Before it was reset it was tracking things like brake cylinder displacements, but making sure that the displacement hadn't changed significantly since last time. Now though it has to rely on the initial information it should be seeing, and brakes are nowhere close to new car specs.

 

Now a new problem, they never seem to end. I got the MVCI cable and successfully got it installed on an old Win8 laptop. Everything seems to work, but when I run the program is says that it can't connect. I guess it could be a bad MVCI. I tried updating the driver and it says that it's the latest one. It's frustrating to try to diagnose a car problem with software that also needs to be diagnosed.

 

Does the light on the mini VCI dongle light up?

If so, you at least know the J2534 connection is good.

Then it's onto the comm ports.

Those can be there own challenge.

But take it one step at a time and you'll get there.

 

It lights up, but it looks like there are two lights, neither one being marked, I can just see them through the not really see through housing. One lights up first and then a second one comes on. I tried reinstalling the techstream software (v15.00.028) and I also tried updating the driver (Windows said that it was up to date and operating).

Good news is that the car is running well with the new batteries. I may just resort to black electrical tape over the warning lights.

Also, I've driven it about 20 miles, so for someone who said that the lights went out on their own, I'm still waiting.

I also tried disconnecting the ground to the 12v battery for 10 minutes (another suggestion) but that didn't work. I am getting good at resetting the auto down window and turning off the reverse beep.

 

Finally got it working, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't have the driver installed. When I checked the hardware under Control Panel, it said that it had installed a driver for the MVCI and that it was working and up to date. A more computer savvy friend told me about MSI files and how that would likely install the correct driver, which it did.

Good news was that Techstream did show me the code that Torque Pro couldn't find.

Bad news was that there was a hydraulic issue with the left rear brake. If I cleared the code, the lights came back on as soon as I applied the brakes.

Good news is that while reviewing postings about adjusting the drum brakes, I found one from @ChapmanF which alerted me to the fact that the self adjusters only work when the parking brake is used (which I rarely do).

Best news is that after applying and releasing the parking brake about a dozen times and then clearing the code, the lights stayed off after applying the brakes. Too soon to say if they will stay off, but I'm hopeful.

Thank you ChapmanF!

 

Best results are when you apply-and-release the parking brake just once, then apply-and-release the regular brake just once, then repeat that sequence. Each repetition of that sequence takes 0.03 mm out of the brake clearance (if it isn't already within 0.03 mm).

Extra apply/releases of the parking brake without touching the regular brake, or of the regular brake without the parking brake, won't really speed up the progress any.

Passers-by will sometimes wonder just what it is you are doing.

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I was disappointed that when I went back out to drive the car, the warning lights were back on. I think that it still might be an adjustment issue, but I'll give your method a try before taking the brakes apart. The fact that I applied the regular brakes a few times might have made a difference, but not to the point of being properly adjusted. It's also still possible that the adjuster is stuck or dirty.

 

dod it work?

 

Unfortunately no, the lights are still on but everything seems to be acting normally. I dove deeper using Techstream and found that the pressure on the left rear brake cylinder was lagging behind the others. It would come up to pressure, but only after a slight delay. The other three work in unison and the left third is a little slow out of the gate. I'm wondering if this is indicative of an air bubble. It would seem that some of the pressure would go to compressing the bubble while the other three increase in pressure right away. People say that it's really easy to bleed the brakes with the Techstream setup, but there seem to also be a lot of bad stories about not disconnecting the battery first, or disconnecting it at the wrong time. Eventually I'm going to have to get it working again, it's coming up for an emissions test, and while the brake system has nothing to do with emissions, I fear that I will fail with any error code showing.