ESP off / ESP maintenance mode

Sometimes referred to as the Royce Hack due to one of the original people to unearth this as an option for a gen4 Jimny, this is the route to turn off ESP at all speeds in high and low range.

There are plenty of videos out there explaining this and showing it, but few that write it up and allow you to dig through the info at your own pace. I decided it was probably time I documented it.

Sections

Introduction

By default, the ESP and traction control system for the Jimny is enabled at speeds above 30 km/h; if you disable it using the ESP off switch in the centre switches, it will re-engage when you go above 30 km/h. It will do this in both 2H and 4H. Many of the ESP functions are disabled in low range, however.

There is a mode that you can put the car into which disables the ESP system (and, in fact, all of the braking functions of the ABS pump). This mode is called ESP service mode. This function exists to allow independent testers to do things like brake system checking, speedometer calibration and also dyno runs without requiring the factory scantool to disable the ESP system.

Note that generation 3 Jimnys with ESP do not have this function, and so can only have it disabled via the factory scantool (or you have to do something more drastic, like yanking the power fuse for the ABS pump which also turns off the ESP module).

Enabling ESP service mode/maintenance mode

I generally call it ESP service mode, though interchangeably this and ESP maintenance mode are used in official documentation for it.

There’s a few steps to engaging ESP service mode. In summary they are:

  • Connect two pins on the service mode connector together with a jumper wire/paperclip
  • Turn the ignition on
  • Wait for the ESP system self check to complete (ESP light will go off)
  • Press and hold the ESP off switch for > 5 seconds, within 3 seconds of the ESP system self check completing
  • Centre display in gauge cluster will now show “ESP MAINTENANCE MODE”

To re-engage ESP:

  • Turn the ignition off
  • Start the car normally

Breaking down those steps:

Telling the computer it’s ok to go into ESP service mode

There is a connector taped to the wiring for the accelerator pedal which is called the “service connector” officially by Suzuki. Since I don’t have a picture of my car with the factory taping, here’s the white 2 pin connector you are looking for.

This is for right-hand drive cars. LHD cars will have this connector in the passengers footwell, i.e. the connector stays on the same physical side of the car even with the different handed drive. I’m not sure how to positively identify it on a LHD car, but the key is it’s 1 pin is black coming in and 1 pin is beige.

When you look at the front of the connector, it looks like there are 4 holes. There aren’t: two are the actual connector holes, and the other two are how you depin the connector.

You need to make sure whatever jumper wire you connect has gone into the actual metal connector sockets.

You can use a lot of things to bridge these two connectors: anything conductive that you can poke into each connector socket will do. Often, people use a paperclip straightened out and poked in.

You can also use a random piece of jumper wire (here I’ve grabbed one with a connector on the end and bare wire on the other, but it can be bare both ends or connectors or whatever).

A lot of people get worried about the idea of sticking random wires around. You’re not ‘short circuiting’ something, you’re sending a ground signal to the ESP module to say “hey, enable service mode”. This means there’s no risk from leaving it connected; the only time you might consider yanking it out is to stop a discussion if you have some warranty work around the electrical system and think you’ll get queried.

Turn on the ignition to the on position, but don’t start the car

The next stage of the procedure once you’ve bridged the wire is to turn the ignition to the on position, but don’t start the car. The on position activates all of the module self check stuff, including the ESP system, and we need the ESP system to have passed that self check before disabling ESP.

ESP self check light needs to go out before disabling ESP

This is probably the part most people get wrong. You need the ESP system to have completed the self check before you initiate the ESP off switch press.

As a reminder, the ESP warning light is in the tachometer/rev counter down the bottom, slightly to the left. A bunch of these lights will come on when you first turn the ignition to the on position, but the only light you care about here is the ESP light itself (and not the ESP off light!)

As soon as the ESP warning light goes off from the self check

Disable ESP within 3 seconds of ESP self-check completing

This one is relatively straightforwards, other than the need to get the timing right. You need to start pressing the ESP off button within 3 seconds of the ESP self check passing. As a reminder, the ESP off button is down by the power window switches in the centre of the car, below the HVAC controls.

To turn off ESP and enter service mode, press and hold this for 5 seconds or more.

What the dash should display

The dash should display the message “ESP MAINTENANCE MODE ACTIVE” in the middle display screen in the dashboard. I don’t know what it looks like in the cars with the different style middle display screen though, sorry! You will also have both the “ESP OFF” and the “ESP WARNING” light in the tacho displayed. There will also be other warnings since you won’t have started the car at this stage.

If you can’t get it to engage

Although it seems quite fiddly, in practise it’s quite a quick procedure to do. If you can’t get it to engage after holding the

  1. Re-check the bridging wire to make sure you’re correct into the actual connector
  2. Check that you are getting the timing right:
    • Ignition to on (car not started)
    • Look for ESP light to go on, and then go off within 2 seconds
    • Once the light goes off, press and hold the ESP off switch for at least 5 seconds

Other than that it should just work, and I’m not aware of other limitations. It seems to work in both 3 and 5 door cars up to the latest revision, so it isn’t something where they have (presently) removed it. They’re also unlikely to, since it really exists to allow for repairability/servicing requirements at independent workshops.

Re-engaging normal ESP functionality

Just turn the ignition off and back on again. The ESP functionality will be reset with the ignition cycle and all is good to go.

Note that this means if you turn the car off and back on again, you will have to go through the procedures to disable it again.

Seeing it in video form

I’ve recorded two videos demonstrating the procedure so you can see how quick it is, and the sequence. The first is what you’ll see in the tachometer and the central display while you enter ESP service mode.

The second video is trying to show the dance between all the steps: ignition on, waiting for ESP check to complete, going down and disabling ESP, and then what you see in the gauge cluster.

Other people’s videos

There’s a number of other videos talking through it, which I’ve included here for completeness & because they come before me in documenting it, so I want that to be recognised.

Royce Murphy was one of the first people to publicise this way back near the launch of the car.

Robert Pepper, an automotive journalist, has a good discussion about it and some tips for setting up your Jimny for driving on the sand.

Another commonly shared video is this one from BallsDeepNZ.

Positives and benefits

Like all things there’s some pros and cons to doing this:

Positives to using service mode

  • You are fully guaranteed to have ESP off at all speeds. This can be useful in certain offroad situations.
  • Unlike some other methods, this does not store any codes or ‘trace’ you did something to disable the traction control other than

Caveats to using service mode

  • You will not have ABS on the road since this function disables ABS along with all traction control. Only use this function on the road if you have particular issues to work through; I would not drive around with it disabled all of the time.
  • In 4wding situations, you will no longer have cross-axle braking. This means your open differentials will be fully open, and if a wheel is in the air then it will take all of the power from that axle. If you have locking differentials then fine, engage them and all will be good. If you don’t then you actually will make your job harder offroad without the brake traction control stuff doing its thing.

Is this safe to do?

This is another very commonly asked question. The shorter answer is: yes, absolutely, in the right situations.

The longer answer is despite how it ‘feels’ putting a piece of wire bridging two connectors, it is an official Suzuki procedure to do so. It is not doing something to cause an error with the car, it is the official procedure for a workshop without the Suzuki scan tool to disable ESP for whatever reason.

The much, much longer answer is you have to consider the downsides as well as the upside with your driving. A lot of people overstate their driving abilities; disabling a key protection in the car might have unexpected results in emergency situations if you are not mentally prepared for what is disabled. While you no longer have traction control and ESP due to wheel speed differences, you also don’t have anti-lock brakes. Many people inadvertantly trigger ESP on the road not because the car is trying to be too safe, but because they’re more out of control than they realise. It’s very easy to think you’re a superior driver, but that can get found out very quickly with safety systems disabled.

Other options for disabling ESP

There are a bunch of different options for disabling ESP/traction control etc and it’s worth also discussing them here.

There are very fancy modules which essentially fool the car into keeping the traction control/ESP system disabled at all speeds. These are not hugely fancy (just some CAN emulation stuff) but they are also not cheap. If you want the ultimate solution to ‘fool’ the car then this might be for you, however.

If you are mostly needing it off for 4wding reasons, consider low range (especially if you have a manual Jimny). In low range you have the annoying parts of traction control/ESP disabled (along with collision avoidance and a few other things) but you also have key cross-axle braking stuff working still. This helps people out more than they might realise offroad. I quite often will use low range: ultimately, the car has a small engine that needs to rev so reducing the load on the engine and using low range is a great solution.

The nuclear route is to disable the ABS through pulling the ABS fuse or wiring it up through a relay to disconnect the ABS pump power. This will stop the system being able to brake individual wheels, and it will absolutely turn everything off. A big discussion on this and doing it is covered in this video (not mine, so comment on that video for discussion with the creator!):

However, it will leave codes from the other modules that need to communicate with the ABS system so it can be more ‘noticeable’ in case of collision or warranty queries. It’s a lot easier to just pull the service/bridging wire out of the connector than either undoing a fancy relay setup or deleting all relevant codes before the car goes in for warranty work.

What about a gen3?

So, earlier I mentioned that there’s no equivalent of maintenance mode via a jumper switch & press and hold ESP off; the official procedure for a JB43 with ESP is via the Suzuki scantool only (or other compatible high-end scantools).

Birkir from Iceland points out an alternate procedure, that at least on a LHD car, produces an “ESP Maintenance Mode” type thing. What you need to do is put the ignition on while holding the brake, then reach down into the footwell and press the brake pedal switch and hold it for > 5 seconds. The car will see the increase in brake pressure but that the pedal is not pressed, and so it will go into maintenance mode. This also appears to work on a gen4 Jimny.

An alternate procedure I have been told by a nameless workshop manager, suggests you put the ignition on, hold the brake pedal down for > 8 seconds and then disable ESP using the switch while still depressing the brake pedal. This will also put it into a form of maintenance mode.

Since I don’t have a spare JB43 with ESP hanging around I can’t confirm these things, but that’s some info just in case you’ve stumbled across this page.