Honda Car Forum

Hi again, all:

My list of problems continues. On my 90 Legend LS, the red warning Brake
light on the dashboard instrument panel goes on and off at strange times.


I first noticed it would come on for a few seconds when going up a
particularly steep hill. Now it comes on when I brake suddenly, or
accelerate suddenly, or just at random. Sometimes it stays on for just a
few seconds, sometimes it staty on the entire length of the trip.
Sometimes it comes on long enough to make the yellow ABS warning light
come on, but then the red brake light goes off.

I have checked and double checked the brake fluid level and it seems to be
fine. I know that before, when the light first started acting this way, I
had way TOO MUCH brake fluid in the resevoir. But after I got the right
amount of fluid in there, it still behaved strangely. Could having too
much fluid in the resovoir damaged the brakes or damaged the sensor???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

"DownTurn" <mark@siamese-dream-dot-com> wrote in message
news:767080076f1904eec8f25222b43587f2@localhost.ta lkaboutautos.com...
> Hi again, all:
>
> My list of problems continues. On my 90 Legend LS, the red warning Brake
> light on the dashboard instrument panel goes on and off at strange times.
>
>
> I first noticed it would come on for a few seconds when going up a
> particularly steep hill. Now it comes on when I brake suddenly, or
> accelerate suddenly, or just at random. Sometimes it stays on for just a
> few seconds, sometimes it staty on the entire length of the trip.
> Sometimes it comes on long enough to make the yellow ABS warning light
> come on, but then the red brake light goes off.
>
> I have checked and double checked the brake fluid level and it seems to be
> fine. I know that before, when the light first started acting this way, I
> had way TOO MUCH brake fluid in the resevoir. But after I got the right
> amount of fluid in there, it still behaved strangely. Could having too
> much fluid in the resovoir damaged the brakes or damaged the sensor???
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
Not sure about your Legend, but typically the light is driven by a
differential pressure sensor looking for imbalance between the two halves of
the dual braking system. In a non-ABS system the common causes are bad brake
master cylinder, bad fluid (it gradually absorbs moisture from the air) and
various problems with the brake calipers.

I suspect the earlier overfill got something out of whack, but probably
didn't actually damage anything (unless it flooded the float for the fluid
level sensor). This is the sort of thing that can be a progressive expense
if you let it - a "qualified" but not really expert brake man could change a
lot of expensive parts troubleshooting it. An expert can probably get it
quickly (read: minimum expense). Ask your friends for recommendations, but
when you talk to the mechanics (be sure to mention the overfill) listen to
what they say. If they start listing the things it could be, you know that
is the path they will take... try this, try that. If one says it's *probably
this*, he isn't as likely to take you wandering in the woods at your
expense. He could be wrong, but at least he isn't putting his hiking shoes
on right away :-)

Mike

I had a similar problem on my '03 Odysseyy a couple weeks ago and it turned
out to be my brake pads needed to be replaced (46,000 miles). The mechanic
said that since there was so little left in the pads, it caused the brakes
to use more brake fluid to get them to stop & that caused the light to come
on sporadically.

"DownTurn" <mark@siamese-dream-dot-com> wrote in message
news:767080076f1904eec8f25222b43587f2@localhost.ta lkaboutautos.com...
> Hi again, all:
>
> My list of problems continues. On my 90 Legend LS, the red warning Brake
> light on the dashboard instrument panel goes on and off at strange times.
>
>
> I first noticed it would come on for a few seconds when going up a
> particularly steep hill. Now it comes on when I brake suddenly, or
> accelerate suddenly, or just at random. Sometimes it stays on for just a
> few seconds, sometimes it staty on the entire length of the trip.
> Sometimes it comes on long enough to make the yellow ABS warning light
> come on, but then the red brake light goes off.
>
> I have checked and double checked the brake fluid level and it seems to be
> fine. I know that before, when the light first started acting this way, I
> had way TOO MUCH brake fluid in the resevoir. But after I got the right
> amount of fluid in there, it still behaved strangely. Could having too
> much fluid in the resovoir damaged the brakes or damaged the sensor???
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>

Uuuhhh... funny thing about this, you know, it turns out I kept mistaking
the ABS resivoir for the main brake fluid resivoir. So while the ABS fluid
was topped off, the main brake fluid resivoir was way low. Once I added
break fluid to the main resivoir, the light went off.

I swear in my Chiltons repair manual you cannot see the main break
resivoir at all, and they tell you to fill up the ABS one instead. Anyway,
that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Thanks again,

Mark

> My list of problems continues. On my 90 Legend LS, the red warning
Brake
> light on the dashboard instrument panel goes on and off at strange
times.
>
>
> I first noticed it would come on for a few seconds when going up a
> particularly steep hill. Now it comes on when I brake suddenly, or
> accelerate suddenly, or just at random. Sometimes it stays on for just
a
> few seconds, sometimes it staty on the entire length of the trip.
> Sometimes it comes on long enough to make the yellow ABS warning light
> come on, but then the red brake light goes off.
>
> I have checked and double checked the brake fluid level and it seems to
be
> fine. I know that before, when the light first started acting this way,
I
> had way TOO MUCH brake fluid in the resevoir. But after I got the right
> amount of fluid in there, it still behaved strangely. Could having too
> much fluid in the resovoir damaged the brakes or damaged the sensor???
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>