mnorton
Member
now that winter is upon is (in VA w/ 15degree weather), ive been runnin into a problem. while ON and also in drive, my ABS light is now on. it does go off at times, but now i try to not even look at it. so im wonderin if anyone has had any issues w/ this?
I just spent quite a lot of time investigating an ABS light problem and I would like to share my findings.
There seem to be a number of misunderstandings about reading CEL/ABS codes, capability of OBD scanners, the “pin trick” and even the numbering standard of the 16 terminal OBD port. Here is what I can confirm from my first-hand experiences with my 98 Accord EX – 5 speed.
1. OBD Port Numbering - There are two numbering conventions floating around for the 16 terminal OBD port. The first one I found at http://www.v6performance.net/forums/6g-technical-discussion/41989-check-engine-light-codes-resetting.html is incorrect; at least it is on my car. On my ODB port, the corner terminals are labeled with very small numbers. The numbers on my OBD port are the same as the information found on this website http://hondatuning.org/how-to-read-diagnostic-trouble-codes-dtcs-without-an-obdii-scan-tool/ . I can see how there is confusion for my own Haynes manual has the OBD port labeled the same as the first website and talks about jumping terminals 8 and 13 to read the codes. The good news is that terminals 8 and 13 in this version are the same as terminals 4 and 9 as stated on the second website.
Important – the purpose of saying all of this is if someone were to read that you jump terminals 8 and 13 without looking at the shape of the diagram and then counted the terminals on his/her own OBD port (based on the numbers in the corners) you will be jumping the wrong terminals. I’m not sure if any damage would occur in doing so however I (and I'm sure others) don’t want to find out the hard way.
2. Reading ABS Codes – I can confirm that using a thin/small paper clip to jump terminals 4 and 9 will yield flashing lights (codes) on both the CEL (check engine light) light and the ABS light, provided both lights are on. I have determined that the ABS light will flash its codes only four times and it does so using long and short flashes whereas the CEL light will flash its coded continuously (until you turn the key off) and also uses long and short flashes. If you have both lights on, I would read the ABS code(s) first because it takes a few tries to read it accurately. I used this website (towards the bottom) http://honda-tech.com/showpost.php?p=11330084&postcount=1 for the ABS codes. The owner of this post states “There's NO long flashes, it's all short flashes with short & long pauses in between” however as I stated above, my car displays long and short flashes. I used this site http://hondatuning.org/diagnostic-trouble-codes-dtc/ for a complete list of 2 digit CEL codes. I found that many sites have shorter versions; this seems to be the most complete and is the same list as in my Haynes manual with the exception of the three digit codes at the bottom of the list which my manual doesn’t have.
A thanks also to hackmiester1337 for his Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpG3Sazz3GA&feature=mh_lolz&list=WL5F62C2D9F4608139 Yet another piece to this puzzle.
3. CSC (Check Service Connector) - I have confirmed that the 6G Accord does have a CSC Connector as described by Totalimmortal in his post http://www.6thgenaccord.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24473&postcount=1 . The only reason I have highlighted this post is that it seems that some older Hondas (as per the many posts I found during my Google searches) use the CSC port for other things such as diagnosing CEL and ABS codes. A person could be easily confused by this; at least I was until I was able to confirm the functionality of the “pin trick”. From the information in this post, the main purpose of jumping the CSC is to remove the SRS light.
I hope someone finds this helpful.