Suzuki Wagon R Warning Lights

Stoner · October 28, 2018

Hello people,

Feels bad asking for help first up. But I'm kind of helpless at the moment so I hope you'll bear with me and provide any guidance possible.

So my Wagon R hybrid (2015 FZ Safety) met with an accident where a biker boy slammed into the wheel and driver's side fender whilst I was stationary, blowing my tyre and cracking my windscreen by slamming into it head first.

Within a couple of days after the garage returned the car to me with all visible damage to the bodywork repaired, three warning lights came on; namely the radar braking, traction control and a light with the exact symbol of the handbrake light but yellow in colour.

I got the vehicle scanned by the agent who said that the steering angle has gotten messed up at the collision causing it to be off centre which has resulted in the ABS system receiving invalid data with regards to steering angle. Apparently this has caused the ABS and radar braking systems to shut down. Faiure in the braking systems have also shut down the Electric Motor Assist feature and the auto engine shut off feature (things that makes this car a mild hybrid). Agent says so but i find it hard to believe that all systems would shut down like this due to a slightly "off the centre" steering angle. So due to this minor collision, my FZ safety has now become like a normal Indian Alto with no ABS, No radar braking (useless feature anyways) and a non hybrid.

Anyways they said that they've fixed the issue with the steering angle and done a wheel alignment but I need to drive for about 1000kms or so for the warning lights to be turned off and for the fancy braking systems to reactivate. However they also said that if the warning lights do not go away after that, it means that either my steering angle sensor or the ABS sensor or whatever is busted and I might have to get it / them replaced. Then the problem "might" go away, they said rather unconvincingly. I took the vehicle to a "hybrid center" to get a second opinion and they asked me what the agent said and told me that "yes yes that's how it is, everything deactivates". But I did see their scanner indicating a faulty steering angle sensor.

I've never done any major vehicle repairs earlier and what i want to know is if;

1. If i should take the vehicle for a third opinion or does their diagnosis make sense? Would all systems shut down like this like a set of falling dominos? If a third opinion is required any recommendations of a technician who knows his way around things like this?

2. In case i have to replace this sensor, what if it also doesn't resolve the problem? I mean would the agent replace it with a spare they have and be sure it solves the problem before changing me for the repair or say afterwards "sorry that didn't solve the problem let's try replacing some other sensor at an astronomically high price"? (Sorry if this is a lame, noobish question)

Anyways sorry about the length of the post.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Stoner

Davy · October 28, 2018

Welcome to the forum!

Input from steering angle sensor and wheel speed sensors do in fact feed data into multiple systems including ESP and radar. So what the agent is saying is correct. I hope this answers your question #1.

For question #2, more information about the actual error is needed to give an indication of whether replacing the steering angle sensor will actually solve it. It might just be that when the body repair was being carried out they disconnected the battery which in turn reset the ESP. In this case, it just needs to be re-calibrated. The agent asking you to drive 100km would be for re calibration. However I doubt that's the correct way of calibration because you really shouldn't have to drive 100km without any safety mechanisms (ABS, EBD, EPS and so on) active just to enable it. It should just be a series of of short steps you'd have to do like 1. Switch on the car, 2. Put in drive, 3. Drive on flat surface at 20km/h in a straight line for few meters. Google and you might find our as all Suzuki's should be sharing the same method.

Hope this helps.

Stoner · October 28, 2018

5 hours ago, Davy said:

Welcome to the forum!

Input from steering angle sensor and wheel speed sensors do in fact feed data into multiple systems including ESP and radar. So what the agent is saying is correct. I hope this answers your question #1.

For question #2, more information about the actual error is needed to give an indication of whether replacing the steering angle sensor will actually solve it. It might just be that when the body repair was being carried out they disconnected the battery which in turn reset the ESP. In this case, it just needs to be re-calibrated. The agent asking you to drive 100km would be for re calibration. However I doubt that's the correct way of calibration because you really shouldn't have to drive 100km without any safety mechanisms (ABS, EBD, EPS and so on) active just to enable it. It should just be a series of of short steps you'd have to do like 1. Switch on the car, 2. Put in drive, 3. Drive on flat surface at 20km/h in a straight line for few meters. Google and you might find our as all Suzuki's should be sharing the same method.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a bunch for the reply. What I was mostly concerned about was how this faulty steering angle sensor could disable the hybrid power system.

Shall Google further for any additional info