I have recently purchased a Honda Jazz 2005 1.4 DSI SE from a friend, the car itself is fantastic, like I keep telling other friends it's the most practical car in the world
. My only issue is the ABS light seems to have a mind of its own, and my trust in a garage successfully diagnosing the fault is slipping.
The ABS light first popped on after about 4 months of driving it, I do about 45 miles a day to and from work so I am guessing the fault was not there when I brought it. I booked it into my local Honda garage and when I picked it up I was pleasantly pleased and relieved that they said they checked it over and could not find the cause of the problem, they had checked for loose connections and reset it and test ran and the fault had cleared, I believed them and was happy that this may be a common thing they deal with and were not pasting over there failings to pick up the root cause. Anyway the light came back on a couple of weeks later and every time I went to pick up the phone and re book it in the fault cleared, the light became so temperamental, it never seemed to trigger at a certain point it just seemed to have a mind of its own and then with no warning would clear for a day or two. I decided to book it into an independent garage close to where I live as it had been on constant for about a week. When the mechanic plugged their computer in to read the codes (which incidentally the ABS light had cleared when they turned it on) the first code was a battery fault code, he ran it again and different codes came up but amongst it all was the battery fault code. They tested the battery and found it 'weak' when under load and recommended I tried changing that. My national automotive break down company (RAC) had and still has a deal on where members can have a car battery fitted for free, so I thought rather than get myself dirty I might as well take them up on that deal. When they came to change my battery they to tested the battery and confirmed that it was shot and changing it would probably help my ABS issue as low voltage would make the ABS sensor control go barmy and fail. That was yesterday and tonight I have driven into work and I hadn't even got to the bottom of my road and the ABS light is illuminating again, when I pulled over and turned the engine off then on again, the ABS light comes on but flickers once briefly as the system turns on, on the first twist of the key prior to ignition. I have just gone out there to test it once more and now the ABS light is not even flickering at this stage and is fixed on.
I am getting a bit disheartened as its costing me £55 to get the codes read each time and no one is filling me full of confidence they can repair it, most alarmingly Honda didn't even detect my battery was shot.
Has anyone else had similar problems out there with their ABS? Or has someone got comprehensive knowledge of the Honda Jazz ABS system to help me?
Thanks for reading and any help you can give