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VSA Brake Switch Clean

Stevearcade

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2003 Accord CM2
HI guys,

I've had a couple of occasions when my Cruise-Control's not wanted to activate. A couple of taps on the brakes have fixed the issue, leading me to think there was perhaps something at fault with the switch on the brake pedal that tells the Cruise-Control when I'm braking.

Further still, I'll often have my VSA light come on after normal braking. Not heavy or extreme braking, normal everyday braking. The light stays on and will only reset if I switch off the engine and restart the car. The light is not the scary one with the ABS, it's just the VSA and "!" in a triangle like this:

VSALight.png


So anyway, I reckon there will be dirt and crud causing faulty connections and confusing the VSA control unit and/or Cruise-Control. So I figured I'd take it out and clean it.

Under the footwell, pressed up against the brake pedal is a large white plastic switch. You honestly can't miss is. It will come out with an easy quarter turn anti-clockwise and un-click the cable from it. Then you should be looking at this:

VSABrakeSwitch01.jpg


You can easily take the switch apart with the aid of a couple of small flat blade screw drivers. Once apart, you've got a white part and a black part with a spring loaded black pushrod. In the black half are the switch terminals you need to clean. Some of these will slot in and out for easier cleaning. Once all apart it will look like this:

VSABrakeSwitch02WithCircles.jpg


The red circled areas are the areas of attention we're going to be working with.

First of all, carefully slot out the one half of the terminals that will remove. You should be presented with this:

VSABrakeSwitch04WithCircles.jpg


Now use a very small wire brush (or old tooth brush if you haven't got a small wire brush) and very gently clean off residue, dirt and grime from the areas circled in red. Then give them a good going over with cotton buds dipped in some sort of cleaning fluid. I used White Spirit, a bit extreme perhaps, but it did the job.

The area circled in blue is slightly bent in order to be springy, as part of the switch mechanism. I gave this a tiny tweak and bend to increase the springiness on the ***umption that it will have lost some of it's original springiness over the 9 years of use the car's seen.

Another key area to clean are the metal contacts in this picture, again circled in red:

VSABrakeSwitch03WithCircles.jpg


Cleaning these should help with the smooth movement of the switch.

Now the pushrod of the switch. Two areas to consider here:

VSABrakeSwitch05WithCircles.jpg


Firstly the part circled in pink are two little metal pins that are acting as springs. Give these an extremely gentle tweak outwards (and I mean very gentle!) away from the shaft in order to put a tiny amount of rigidity and springiness back into them. This should help the switch feel tight but smooth.

Finally, the area circled in blue is where the rod goes through a hole in the white casing. I put a very tiny bit of grease here to make the switch a little smoother in motion.

Once all of this is done, simply click it back together. You can't put it back together wrong as there are all notches and things that mean it can only be ***embled correctly. Then put it back in the car. For this, leave the brake pedal where it is, slot the switch in until it is pressed and will not go any further and give it a quarter turn clockwise. Don't push it through further than the brake pedal's resting position otherwise it will stop your pedal retracting as far as it wants to meaning the brakes may always be very slightly on :unsure: .

Anyway, apologies for the slightly blurry photos, my phone's camera is pony. I hope this is of some help to people. I've yet to test drive the car, so have no idea if this has actually made any difference. But ***uming it has worked, I've saved myself a little money for 15 minutes work. And hopefully I've saved some of you guys some money too.

:)
 
Ok, so out driving today. The first time I braked, the VSA light came on :rolleyes: . I restart the engine and the first time I brake, the VSA light comes on <_< . There's a pattern here...

So I took it out and investigated. I think I found the culprit and what in fact causes much of the problem in the first place.

VSABrakeSwitch05WithCircles.jpg


The black pushrod has a ridge on it just below the square top. It's on the opposite side to what's in the picture. The opposite side of the metal spring plates.

Anyway, this ridge pushes the contacts apart in the switch mechanism. After all these years, the ridge has become slightly worn and the top of the ridge had a slight notch in it that was catching and causing the switch to not open and close cleanly.

First I considered the metal part the ridge rubs against to open the switch. In the below picture it's the all copper part and the area we're talking about is between the two red circles. The ridge presses against that and pushes the switch open.

VSABrakeSwitch04WithCircles.jpg


Anyway, I very slightly, with some tweezer pliers, bent the tip of the copper part that the ridge presses against upwards and outwards. This meant the tip of the copper component was no longer catching roughly on the ridge. Secondly, as this part is purely mechanical and there is no electrical current to consider, I put lots of grease on it ;) .

Put the thing back together with a touch more grease on the shaft and push rod springs and now the switch is buttery smooth baby ;) . I checked the switch over with the multimeter and it is opening and closing as it should. I'm extremely confident the switch is now absolutely fine. And as the problem got worse after my initial tinkering, I can ***ume it is definitely the switch that is causing the light and nothing else.

If this doesn't work, I'll give up and spend the £5 it costs to replace the part :lol: .
 
Ok, just put it all back amended and taken her out for a spin. I was peddling the brake, trying to get it to wheel spin to trigger the traction control, slamming on the brakes, braking gently for long periods of time and some normal braking too. No VSA ! light. Result :D .

So to sum up:

1) Clean contacts thoroughly

2) Tweak the mechanical action of the removable copper piece with some tweezer pliers to eliminate potential rough movements of the push rod

3) Apply grease to the non electric moving parts to make it buttery smooth

4) Refit

Job done.
 
Nice write up mate, I had this problem several years back and did exactly above, not had a problem since.
 
Good write up Steve this deserves a rep point :)
 
Cheers Brett. What's a rep point? :blush:

Just for people's info:

Thrashed the car a little today. Had some good old fashioned VSA intervention while I dropped the clutch pulling away in the wet :lol: . Also felt the ABS step into play as I got onto some gravel under breaking on a country lane.

So I know the VSA and ABS systems are working fine.

Better still, I've still not had a single VSA! warning light come on since doing this at the weekend. I'm fairly confident I've solved the issue with the above method.

:)
 
Cheers Brett. What's a rep point? :blush:



:)
:lol: Steve its for members that has contributed to the forum and gave very good info and things.
It looks like you have 6 rep points to date good man :)

http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/members/page__sort_key__posts__sort_order__desc__max_results__20__st__20
 
:lol: Go Me :D !

Cheer Brett.
 
6 rep points and you dident no makes it all the better when you find out
 
this should be in the DIY section so this great advice is not lost under endless fuel filter related threads in the diesel section.
 
How odd, I thought I had put it in the DIY section. Maybe one of the lovely mods or admin team could be so kind as to move it :D .
 
its a great write up steve, If my light comes back on I will be following this. Thankfully I havent had it come back on since I changed the rear brake pads. So I hope that was all it was. B)
 
good write up, thankfully no !!!!!! on my car, but for the first time about a month ago i felt the vsa kick in at traffo lights, obv i pulled away a bit too eager from the lights on the ****ing wet road.
 
Alright guys, just a little update. It's been 6 months of daily driving and this issue has not come back. All's good.
 
Cant belive I missed this thread. Very good job mate, maximum respect for this.
This will surely save someone money
 
Had my VSA light on for a while now, going to give this one a try and see what happens, cheers for the tip!
 
Well I tried it and subsequently wrecked the switch!! So off to the scrappie for me!
 
paulsco said:
Well I tried it and subsequently wrecked the switch!! So off to the scrappie for me!
Ah well I should have looked the the pictures in more detail, one brake light switch replaced and for the life of me I cannot see the other switch?
 
Just as the first post says, get your head under the steering wheel column, there's a big white switch underneath the brake pedal. Turn and it comes out.
 
My VSA light pops on occasionally as well. Does anyone have the part number for the whole sensor as if its only cheap I'd rather replace it than mess about with it?
 
Hi,

Just a quick update i was having the vsa light appear intermittent every time it did happen the brake pedal was pressed and would reset when engine was reset.

I removed brake switch thanks to stevearcade and soaked in vinegar overnight, removed and fitted the vsa still appeared i then removed and adjusted the contacter and re fitted.
Sorry didnt have time to post pics.


Its been 1 week no vsa Light has shown :) so for anyone with vsa light try this first.
 
Had the intermittent vsa light this last couple weeks. Knocked off the cruise control too.reset ok on start up.
Couple days ago pulled brake switch and followed steves guide.
Done around 200 miles now and light never been on since. Early days but looks good.
Thanks steve. Top man ☺
 
Very good writeup.

I would add, that two panels need to be popped in order to get to the switch if you've got big hands like mine! Very quick and easy to do though.

Took out the switch, disassembled it, gave it a good clean with electrical contact cleaner, reassembled it, tested it with a meter and it seemed fine. Once installed - still no joy.

The symptoms:
1. The \!/ VSA light is on.
2. The Multi Information Display says VSA.
3. The red (!) LED lights up - as I drive. This is the one that's on if your handbrake is on.
4. Below that theres an orange i in a circle.
5. Whenever the brake pedal is depressed another icon comes up (circle with a wavy bit at the bottom) in orange - which says refer to brake system failure according to the manual (page 85 and 565):
6. The VSA light goes off when the car is off, comes back on after the weird icon and the damn thing keeps beeping at me.
7. This doesn't effect the cruise control - i've used it and it works fine. Even with those lights.

I've just ordered a new brake switch which I should get tomorrow. All being well, that should solve the issue - but any ideas peeps?

Brake fluid level is fine as is the quality. It was only changed in October.
New brake pads and discs (all round) in January.

It's an 06 CDTI EX...

If my handbrake cable was stretched, would that cause this problem? Even though it wasn't bought up on the MOT, I have noted that it is stretched.

Thank you peeps.

darcus
 
So, as an update -

Just called out the AA who said there was a code for low brake fluid.

We physically checked the fluid and its way above the minimum.

So, doing a physical inspection he found rear off side brake caliper was leaking brake fluid. Quite badly. I'm shocked that the MOT didn't pick up on that which only happened last week.

It got towed to a garage (he said it's not safe to drive) and they're sorting it.

I sincerely hope this clears the code and gets my car running as it should.

Looks like I can return the new brake switch I ordered too.

Thank you peeps

darcus
 
As explained rear calipers are prone to seize and a result can leak fix leak and faulty calipers and your vsa lights will disappear.

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk
 
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