IMO i would just delete the ABS modulator. I hate ABS.
But if you want ABS you should replace it. If the whole system is contaminated that mean the ABS modulator is porb Contaminated also. The system is easy to clean out. You can buy a bleeder that hooks to a air line to bleed the system. I have bought one myself and it makes life alot easyer. You just loosen the bleeder screw or the brake line since you do not want to Contaminated the new parts and hook the rubber tube to it and hold down on the button and it will pull all the old fluid threw the lines. Then replace the master cylinder and fill it with clean fluid and repeat untill you get clean fluid threw the lines.
If you take your car some where for oil changes i would go to them and Bit*h. Some how they added the wrongh fluid and now you have to pay for it.

 

My father actually suggested I bypass the ABS modulator as well. He said ABS nearly got him in two accidents so he had a mechanic bypass it for him. I asked the Honda dealership if they could do that for me & they said they couldn't because it was hooked up to the car's computer. Couldn't I just take off the sensors on the unit, remove the unit & just bypass it fairly easily? Is this a simple thing to do? Thanks again for the help.

 

You should be able to remove it. The only issue I may see with taking it out is that you might have the brake light on your dash on. That's probably why the dealer won't do it and they also might find it as a liability.

 

Just a couple of observations here, please understand that I am just offering an opinion and relevance can be easily discounted without a flame war, I hope.

1. You can order some aftermarket parts, but the genuine parts from the dealer were not really that much over the cost of the aftermarkets. FWIW, for that small differential I would buy dealer parts to get my car back to OEM specs and reduce the chance of a part failure in the future.

2. Dealerships are often maligned as being ‘stealerships’ and so on, however, for the most part they have trained personnel that engage in continuing education courses, updated training on different components, and have a wealth of diagnostic brains to pick from the elder techs on the line if they get stuck. They also have immediate access to recalls; technician service bulletins (TSBs), and are experienced on exclusively Honda products. If you don’t buy into the sales pitch given by some underpaid service advisor that you need an ‘engine clean’ at 15,000 miles you won’t get ripped off, just stick to the recommended service. After all, if your car had been serviced at the dealership it would not have been contaminated in the first place and you wouldn’t be looking at the hefty repair bill. Also, their rate for initial diagnostics would have spotted the contamination quickly saving you the cost of the replacement parts that you already have purchased. Believe me, we have all done troubleshooting at home that resulted in unnecessary expenses, so you are not alone here, myself included, o boy, myself included.

3. Ask if you can get a break on the parts/labor/whole shebang if they do the service work on the brakes. They may figure out a way to give you a little off if the numbers are worked from the hourly rate book. The service manager may work with you as well if you approach it correctly. While bypassing your ABS sounds initially like a savings, it may be a deal breaker when you go to sell the car, or at least diminish the resale value enough to pay for the repair now. I would imagine that a litigator in an accident suite would have a field day with that as well were you to get in an unfortunate accident.

4. Removing contamination can be a tricky business, and while MK378 gives excellent advice (he always does) can you be sure that your flushing technique is adequate? Not knowing what exactly caused the swelling of the rubber I would be concerned in getting it eradicated fully and completely before introducing new and expensive components, but again, this is just me. Ask what type of warrantee the dealership will offer in your repair, that alone may be worth the extra cost going in.

I do not work for a dealership, but I have a friend that is a Master Mechanic at a Toyota dealership and has been for 30+ years. I know the inner workings and the perspectives from the management, parts, service, and technical sides. I have made friends in all of these areas. I work for a large semiconductor firm, and I am perhaps a bit paranoid of contaminants as a result, but I do have a respect for them and the havoc that they wreak. Incidentally, I use genuine Honda fluids exclusively, and I believe that especially their coolant is designed to comprehend their dissimilar metals and the plastics in their engine design. We have all bought Hondas because of their superior engineering and design, why would we not believe that the same level of research and development goes into their fluids? If you do go to the dealership have them do a coolant flush, power steering flush, and transmission flush while they are in there. That way you will be back to all Honda OEM fluids.

Good luck in your decision, and I hope that the above is received in the same spirit with which it was given, just trying to help with another opinion.

Oh, by the way, if you notice Midas ABS was almost exactly double the price from the dealer. It is a common practice to double parts prices to boost profits. They may not charge per hour what the dealership does, but they make it up believe me.

Ed Fisher
Dallas, Tx

 

You make some good points about being safe & just having Honda do the job while using OEM parts. If I had an extra $2,800 laying around I would have done that. Instead, I'm going to pay $200 and try to do it myself. I'm probably going to have to just keep the ABS that I have and try to get it cleaned out & inspected to see if it's damaged. There's no way I am going to throw $1000 down the drain without someone actually looking at the part and making sure it can't be salvaged. Thanks for the response though. It's appreciated.

 

I completely agree with this idea. After you complete the flushing and parts replacement work, thoroughly clean out the current ABS unit and reinstall it to see whether it works properly. If it doesn't, it should throw an ABS code. A bad ABS unit won't cause catastrophic loss of the brakes.

 

I completely understand about money not growing on trees and I thank you for your gentlemanly response. As I read Ron J's post it occured to me that if the ABS valving pump/system was not activated during this time of contamination there is no reason to believe that the contaminant was introduced into the ABS system at all. As a matter of fact, it seems unlikely. Going your route seems infinitely wiser given this fact. Please do keep us posted on how this turns out.

All the best,

Ed Fisher
Dallas, Tx

 

You're taking a big chance of ruining all your new parts again there. The ABS unit needs to be taken apart to properly decontaminate it. It has valves and trapped compartments inside that can't be reached just by flushing the external ports. Also flushing solvent from outside will get solvent on the rubber parts inside, causing further damage. The pump may run and the valves cycle every time the car is started, as a self-test. So it's going to have contamination in the inner passages.

Maybe there is a rebuild kit for it? If you take it apart, clean all metal completely then install the rebuild kit, it would be as good as a new one.

 

I'm not sure I feel comfortable taking the ABS apart myself and cleaning it. I don't know why the dealership wouldn't at least offer to look at it for me before I throw $1800 down the drain or whatever it is they charge for the part + labor. Is this something that is not common for shops to try and fix or at least examine or do they just tell everyone that money grows on trees and you should just blindly give them money without knowing if the part is irreparably damaged? Thanks again for the great responses. I really don't know a lot about the ABS systems so this is all new to me.

 

Contaminated system = replace everything. When a shop does it, they have to guarantee the whole job. They don't want to cut corners and then have to do it all over again for free.