OK, I am working on a bit of a basket case for a friend. 98 Accord Ex 4-door, 4 cylinder, 235K miles.

Here's the summary on top, and the backstory w/ all details is below. If you need the details, feel free to look. If you'd rather not read my nonsense, go ahead and swing


The ABS light is on in this car. the CEL was on as well, but I was able to replace plugs and wires and the PCV, and add some fuel injector cleaner and lose the misfire code. I scanned codes with my bluetooth OBD2 scanner and found all the engine related crap, but I got nothing out of the ABS system.

I bled the new brakes, then bedded those in. They bite well enough, but my pedal feel isn't where I wish it was. There's a lot of travel and then it is not quite as firm as I would like, but my daily driver is pretty tuned up brake-wise so I may just be spoiled. Seems like after a few slow stops (15-0) the brake travel lengthens and the stopping force seems to diminish slightly...

Does anyone know how to actually get ABS fault codes from the 98 Accord? I tried jumpering pins 4 and 9 (brown and black) in the OBD2 as recommended in another thread, and got zero response from the car. I tried this a second time by unplugging a wheel sensor as a test, and still got nothing. I also tried pulling the negative terminal to see if it would reset and retain a code, still nothing at all, and the light stayed on. It never flashes and only goes off when the car is turned off.


BACKSTORY BELOW:

When I picked the car up the battery was dead, sunroof was open a bit, it was 2.5 qts low on oil (AGH) and the brakes were HEAVILY rusted. It took almost 30 miles of driving to clean the front rotors of rust and the back rotors never came clean. Even though the parts had been installed new and driven very little, I junked them and did pads and rotors all the way around. The rear phillips-head rotor retainer screws were frozen on hard, and I beat the heck out of it with an impact screwdriver before they came loose.

As far as I can remember the ABS light was on when I picked it up.

It had a leaky caliper that was really dirty w/ brake fluid and goop. I ended up replacing the caliper as well and bleeding everything. The fluid that came out at first looked like old black coffee, but it looks a bit better now.

As for the engine, I found a crap-ton of wet fouling on the spark plugs so I replaced the PCV, which burned that off fast. I also took the intake off and cleaned it, cleaned IACV, tuned up the throttle, replaced plugs and wires, and put a new battery in it. The owner reported that the power locks cycled randomly, often leading to a dead battery. Rather than face this head on, I pulled the power door lock fuse. Owner is fine with manual locks.



Alright, that's what I've got. ANY help would be greatly appreciated, as I am beating my head against the wall here. Could a vacuum leak on the booster cause the pedal creep? Could the master cylinder be total crap? Could I be out of my mind for taking this car on? Time will tell.

Thanks guys.

 

I had a 98 and bleeding the brakes sometimes took a lot of fluid. I would bleed em and think I was done. Getting clear fluid out of the calipers. Then a soft pedal. So I bleed some more, and eventually the last air bubble came out and all was good. YMMV...

Not sure about the ABS error, but I've seen lots of stories about not being able to read ABS codes without the Honda scan tool. Apparently the OBD-2 rules & regulations say that the emmissons codes must be readable with a common scanner, but that's not a requirement for ABS, SRS, HVAC, & other chassis error codes.