Before I book the car into Honda to have a look I thought I would see if anyone has any ideas,

Parked the car on my drive over Christmas, came back and strted it up after 10days and the ! warning with the VSA light are on all the time, thought it may be the brakes stuck but have now driven for a couple of miles and still on, any ideas?

PS, as my first post of 2012, happy new year to you and yours.

 

2007/2008 are quite prone to VSA failure, mine went after parking car and leaving it for 3 hours! Honda will pay for the part usually even if it is out of warranty

 

Many thanks

 

Presumably by ! you mean the brake warning. I would guess the VSA fault is because of the brake fault, so before you start buying new ECUs it might be an idea to check your pads.

 

I will take a look, thanks,

 

Hey,

Mine has had to have a replacement unit already, it went last year just before the Silverstone Classic in a similar situation to yours. When I took it in they found the modulator had gone so new unit under warrenty. Easy and mostly hassle free, my advice would be roll it down to Honda. It is a bit irritating they haven't extended the warrenty period on the VSA module for the S2000 as they have done for the Accord etc..

 

I hate FREDs.

 

Mmm .. thought it was a good idea at the time.. less happy with it now of course, especially as I've never bloody used it and when I have tried to get the car to kick it in I had to push it so hard it was just silly!

 

But surely the VSA is a safety device, not there to be used except in an emergency - it's the same with ABS. You don't NEED either, as long as you don't make mistakes, have a reasonable level of skill, and don't 'mis-behave. So experts need neither.

I actually like the fact that its quite hard to trigger the VSA unless you're 'silly' - it means it doesn't spoil your fun, you can still enjoy the RWD effects. I span my first S2000 (MY02)off a roundabout by being stupid (2nd gear, heavy right foot and a wet oily surface.) I'm convinced VSA would have prevented my spin, so that's why I made sure my next S2000 had it fitted. I have 'experimented' with it somewhat on all sorts of surfaces to work out what it can and can't do. I've found that you can surprise or overwhelm it - e.g flooring it out of a junction with a wet road will still have the backend out wildly requiring lots of correction. Other times its quite subtle, just backing off the power. It doesn't always seem to work the front brakes. Its also very hard to get it to do much on a dry road with good tyres.

BTW one thing I discovered by chance on my first S was that stamping on the brakes if you're in the middle of an uncorrectable oversteer straightens the car up immediately. I did this because I had nothing to lose as the car was already going sideways on opposite lock. I only did this twice (by necessity) - anyone else experienced this?

BTW2 - I also deliberately trigger the VSA to exercise it - my thinking is that if its prone to early failure this will help ('bathtub' curves and all that...)

D

 

So you're saying it's only necessary for idiots. No argument here.

And yes stomping on the brakes does work. But you have to stomp.