VSA light on 08 honda accord

Sergio · 03-11-2011 10:10pm #1

Just like the title says the VSA light came on yesterday morning when i started the engine.Anyone know what the story is with this?

jockellie · 12-11-2011 10:13am

Hi Colin, I'm not sure about the 08 model as I only have an 04 but I have accidentally pushed the VSA button before. On mine it's on the right of steering wheel. Don't think if should of came on by itself. It stands for vehicle stability something.

Sorry if this doesn't help!

Sergio · 12-11-2011 4:40pm

jockellie wrote: »

Hi Colin, I'm not sure about the 08 model as I only have an 04 but I have accidentally pushed the VSA button before. On mine it's on the right of steering wheel. Don't think if should of came on by itself. It stands for vehicle stability something.

Sorry if this doesn't help!

Thanks for the reply mate. I got it sorted yesterday a new VSA modulator fitted. The VSA stands for "vehicle stability assist".The button is on the right hand side of my steering wheel too.
It works with the ABS on the front wheel drive Accord to help keep your car on the road. Simply put, if your car starts to slide around a curve or if you oversteer, the VSA "kicks in" and the brakes apply to the tyre with less traction and the vehicle with more traction gets the additional torque.

I was very lucky because i bought the car 2nd hand last June and its now 3 and a half yrs old.When the problem arose last week i did abit of research on the net and found out honda had extended the warranty on this part for an extra 3 yrs and if the car has less mileage than 63000 on it.Mine has only 39000 so i was covered thankfully.If i wasnt covered under warranty the part alone would of cost me €1200 plus VAT and labour to fit it would have amounted to alot of money.

frank_da_tank · 22-02-2012 12:09pm

Hi,
I have a 06 diesel Accord and have the same problem, the VSA light has come on and stayed on, I have got diagnostic done on it (by a local garage that wasn't a Honda dealer) and it specified two faults:
fault code 81: Fault Battery Voltage
fault code 86: Brake pressure sensor

I have done a small bit of reading up on this and seen that the brake pressure sensor could give a fault if it there is a short circuit in its circuit or if it has low/high current or voltage. Therefore could this fault be only arising because I have a problem with my battery or is the battery fault only showing up because I have a short circuit in my pressure sensor and therefore the battery is loosing voltage.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, I am a student so dont have the money to be paying a honda dealer to have a look at it, not to mind pay 1500 for a new VSA module.
Thanks

jayok · 22-02-2012 12:19pm

frank_da_tank wrote: »

Hi,
I have a 06 diesel Accord and have the same problem, the VSA light has come on and stayed on, I have got diagnostic done on it (by a local garage that wasn't a Honda dealer) and it specified two faults:
fault code 81: Fault Battery Voltage
fault code 86: Brake pressure sensor

The VSA light will be thrown on for a multitude of reasons all of which are related to the drive and/or braking of the vartious engine components.

As you've got the diagnostic code dumps out, it doesn't look like the VSA module, but simply the sensor that's gone amiss or a voltage level.

The batteries in the Accord diesel are pretty small seem to have a short life. Is the battery in good condition and does it crank the engine ok?

There's a dedicate Accord board at www.typeaccord.co.uk where a lot of these questions have been asked a resolved.

frank_da_tank · 22-02-2012 12:33pm

Hi Jayok,
Thanks for the quick reply,
Yes the battery does seem to crank the engine ok but I have noticed when driving at night that my lights dim slightly when I switch on my cruise control, yes I have posted a thread on that forum as well but have no reply as of yet,

If I was to connect my battery to another one via jump leads and start up my car would this tell me if the battery is the problem or not?

George Dalton · 22-02-2012 12:36pm

Any time I have seen a brake pressure sensor fault code in one of these ATE units it has meant that the problem is inside the unit itself.

What mileage is on the car?

jayok · 22-02-2012 12:39pm

frank_da_tank wrote: »

Hi Jayok,
Thanks for the quick reply,
Yes the battery does seem to crank the engine ok but I have noticed when driving at night that my lights dim slightly when I switch on my cruise control, yes I have posted a thread on that forum as well but have no reply as of yet,

If I was to connect my battery to another one via jump leads and start up my car would this tell me if the battery is the problem or not?

If the engine cranks ok, then the battery is probably fine, as this is the most taxing time for a battery.

With regard to the diming of the lights, I think you'll find that this is actually related to the A/C kicking in as the compressor puts a load on the engine initially that it has to adjust to. To test this turn off the climate control (completely off) and leave for 30-40 seconds. Then turn on, 5-10 seconds later the lights will be back dimming again.

Back to the original question, I'd be look at the brake pressure sensor so and I'd be looking for a 2nd hand one!

frank_da_tank · 22-02-2012 12:40pm

150,000KM
Would this mean the whole VSA module needs replaced?

frank_da_tank · 22-02-2012 12:42pm

Brake pressure sensor, Il have a look, can you get one of these on there own or do I need to get the whole module?

jayok · 22-02-2012 12:51pm

You can get these on their own.

However, the concern would be of course that the problem still is in the VSA module.

Normally, you see the error code DTC 66-1 from the dump of this problem, you seem to be getting different codes.

However as George_Dalton says, it's only ever seen the VSA failure here

frank_da_tank · 22-02-2012 1:00pm

The Diagnostics I got run are from a Hella Gutmann mega macs 42, as opposed to one of Honda's own diagnostics units, therefore this could be the reason for a different fault codes,
Would you suggest getting it looked at by a Honda garage? (even thou they cahrge 80 euro to just plug it in)

George Dalton · 22-02-2012 1:05pm

The pressure sensor is inside the unit and cannot be bought separately.

Since your car is too old and the mileage is too high for Honda to cover it you have 3 options.

Buy a new unit from Honda (ultra expensive)
Get your own unit repaired (inconvenient as you will be without the car while the unit is being fixed)
Buy a secondhand unit (quick, cheap but risk of repeat failure)

If it was my own car I would buy a secondhand unit and fit it. I would keep the old faulty unit. Then if the secondhand part subsequently failed you could send the orignal away for repair and at least you would be able to use the car while the original unit was being repaired.

Gun_Slinger · 23-02-2012 6:34pm

This same problem happened my 05 Accord and I installed a 2nd hand unit. It cost me 400 euro fitted.

Honda wouldnt budge on the price of a new one and it would have cost over 1600 euro! So far so good with the 2nd hand one.

Hopefully it is just a dodgy sensor anyway, I have heard on the typeaccord website that this is sometimes the case (although rarely).

VSA light on 08 honda accord

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