2004 Honda Civic Hybrid rear wheels lock intermittently

WOODS2

MEMBER
2004 HONDA CIVIC HYBRID
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
104,000 MILES

The car works fine over more than 3 years of my ownership,
but occasionally in cold weather (Minnesota) I appear to be
stuck on a small patch of ice, but actually the rear wheels
are not turning easily so the front (powered) wheels can't
overcome the combination of a slippery surface and the
nearly locked rear wheels. I think the problem may be in
the ABS which is turning on the brakes in the rear wheels
inappropriately. One possibility is the sensors, but there
are two of them and it seems unlikely that they would
both go out at once. On advice of someone more expert
than I, I tried disconnecting the battery and reconnecting
it to reset the computers. That did seem to help and
I got out of my stuck position but there were signs that
the rear wheels were still partially stuck (Squeaking and
observation by an observer outside the car that at least
one rear wheel was slipping, ) After driving around a
little, the problem seems to more or less go away,
but in cold weather it tends to recur at unpredictable
times, particularly after the car has been sitting for
awhile. The ABS light is not on.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

First of all, the ABS stops working below about 3 mph, so forget that. Second, you don't fix a problem by disconnecting the battery. "Resetting a computer" is something a lot of mechanics fall back on when they don't know what else to tell you, especially when they haven't had the luxury of actually diagnosing anything themselves. That's like asking a doctor what medications to take when they never examined you.

More than likely you have a sticking parking brake cable, especially if you don't use it regularly. Even if you do, your climate is responsible for a lot of rusted cables. (I'm in Wisconsin, the road salt capital of the world)!

If you can get under the car, open one of the bleeder screws, then see if that wheel can be spun more easily. If not, suspect a cable. If it spins freely, we have to look at the rubber flex hoses and for brake fluid contamination.