Brake alarm

Applewins · Jan 6, 2013

I had the brake alarm go off today. Brake warning on dash along with a nonstop high pitch tone that would not stop. I pulled over, stop the car and turned it off. Waiting 10 seconds and restarted and strangely the typical two dings didn't happen but it started along with the brake warning with tone. Turned it off again, restarted with same result.
So I turned around went home, 1 mile away, and shut it down. This time I waited 5 minutes and everything went back to normal. I then preceded to drive it about 20 miles with no issues. What's up?

Just as an FYI, I just went through a car wash about 45 minutes before this happened. Temperature was 26 F. And the car has 3400 miles. Maybe some water was frozen around the brakes in some fashion?

I searched the forum to see if this has been mentioned before with no luck. I guess I'll keep my eye on it.

alohart · Jan 6, 2013

This is one of those situations where we need a tool to plug into the diagnostic port to read the diagnostic trouble code (DTC) that has likely been set. The code description might be enough to understand why the alarm is sounding. Has anyone found an OBDII reader that works with the i? I would think that this would be one of those situations where the DTC would be a standard OBDII DTC which a normal OBDII reader should be able to read.

peterdambier · Jan 7, 2013

Hi alohart,

I do try to get into OBD-2 from linux "c" or python. I guess Elm is the way to go and Blue Teeth would be fine because my pc is mostly outside and I would not dare driving with a cable between my legs.

Arduino is another way but means a lot of programming and a pc or android to communicate with. There is no of the shelf software for the i-MiEV, so Open Source is the only way to go.

Hi Applewins. Water and salt make a good conductor. So your breakes "saw" the contact that tells them they are worn out.

iMiEV808 · Jan 7, 2013

Applewins,
Was the car wash the type where it sprays water under the car too? Some car washes on the east coast of the US also washes the under carriage. Water may have gotten up near the vacuum pump.

Here is a interesting procedure to try on your cars brake vacuum system. With the car in the ready mode, shifter in Park, hand/parking brake on/up, pump the brake pedal rapidly 3 times to deplete the vaccum in the brake booster. You should hear the vacuum pump operate and also hear the same tone alarm. Once the vacuum is built up again the tone should stop.

Applewins · Jan 7, 2013

iMiEV808 said:
Applewins,
Was the car wash the type where it sprays water under the car too? Some car washes on the east coast of the US also washes the under carriage. Water may have gotten up near the vacuum pump.

Here is a interesting procedure to try on your cars brake vacuum system. With the car in the ready mode, shifter in Park, hand/parking brake on/up, pump the brake pedal rapidly 3 times to deplete the vaccum in the brake booster. You should hear the vacuum pump operate and also hear the same tone alarm. Once the vacuum is built up again the tone should stop.

Yes, it had a pretty good under spray. I'll try and test the vacuum system tomorrow. Drove the car all day today, no issues.

TXCharlie · Jan 17, 2013

Whenever any type of critical warning like brakes or temperature come on in any of my cars, I shut them down and call the dealer to come pick them up! Better safe than sorry.

So far my iMiEV hasn't had any problems at all, though (except for pilot error).