ABS intermittent working
 

My ABS light has been coming on occasionaly but the breaking still seemed fine. I did a search and most posts were just the light coming on due to third break light or plug wires, but everything with the breaks was working fine. I inititially thought the same thing but yesterday, while coming to a stop, the ABS came on and there was a sudden lack of breaking for about half a second. The break pedal went all the way to the floor and I had to yank the hand break to keep from hitting the car in front. I haven't changed anything in my car for over 2 months (rear breaks) and everything has been fine. What can I do, how can I check (for free possibly), and is it expensive to fix? Thanks for any help,

Kyle

Yep, welcome to my world. I've been battling with this off and on ever since I bought the car. Comes and goes sometimes with months in between!

Let me see if this sounds familliar to you:

Your car brakes normally to almost a stop, but at about 5 mph your brake pedal sinks and you hear a slight clicking sound behind the dash, followed by a low traction light?

If you want a temp fix, pull out the relay marked ABS out of the relay box under the hood. You will of course lose your ABS, but it will stop this frustrating situation and your brakes will work "Normally"

I have heard that the cause could be a missing tooth on the reluctor ring on one of the front hubs, but I have not done troubleshooting in that area yet due to lack of time.

post the permanent fix if you happen to find it!

No low trac light, just the ABS. Even when the ABS light on, the car seems to break fine, and I was passing it off as one of the previously mentioned problems. But when the car actually stopped breaking when the light came on with me already coming to a stop gives me the impression that the ABS system itslef shut off and normal breaking began. It does not do it until the car has been driven for about 10 minutes the it will usually come on. Only problem is, sometimes, the light does not come on at all. Any ideas? Thanks,

Kyle

You described my problem to the penny except for the quote above.


My front left speed sensor suffers from the ocassional bad conection. I always fix it by removing the tire... pulling the conector out and pushing it back in. It will last about 5 months and will do it again. Ive fixed it like six times by now... same way.


The pedal sinkin to the metal I fixed by accident. I was having problems bleeding my brakes by my self... somehow I always have let air back in the lines... I ended up wrapping teflon tape on all the bleeder screws threads... thats where the air was getting back in and then I proceeded to bleed the brakes all around again..then (I did it backwards though... thats just my nature you hafta understand... I am kinda.. hmm special LOL)..... I bled my ABS unit......... I had the car turned on cause I was tired of slowly pushing the brake pedal... I have been doing it all day long.. anyway.. I turned her on for power assist and began to slowly bleed the ABS unit ... when all of a sudden this rush of air came out of the ABS!!! I saw it fly past the clear hose I had attached to the bleeder screw... next thing I saw was the brake fluid had lots of tiny air bubbles in it... I kept pumping it out till it was clear again.

After that was done... everytime I make my ABS come on it does it in a way more controlled manner... the pedal does go all the way down but its only a fraction of what it used to... it quickly re-gains traction and goes back to normal..... so its fixed fer sure..

In the past it was just like you said... whenever the ABS came on it was like no way I could stop the friggin car and the pedal was all the way down to the metal... now I totally regain control instead.


Hope my info helps.


Marvin

Thanks guys for the advice. A funny thing today coming home. My wife was behind me in her car and said that my third brake light was out. I thought it being out would just cause the ABS light to come on, not make the unit not work. What does the third brake light being out do, just cause ABS light to come on or does it actually shut the ABS unit off? Thanks,

Kyle

Well the 3rd brake lights have been replaced and work fine but the ABS is still going out. I will try bleeding both the brakes and ABS system but don't feel that will be the problem. Any other ideas? Thanks,

Kyle

Did you orginally have 2.73 gears?? If so did you get a 3 seriers ABS reluctor gear? I had the same problem going from a 2 to 3 series carrier while reusing the old 2 seriers reluctor gear without knowing.

Jeff D.

I actually bought a M6 complete rear and just swapped them. That was about a year ago and this just started recently. Thanks though,

Kyle

could be a knik in one of abs hoses.

locate hose that goes from the brake vacuum reserve cylinder just above where the steeering linkage comes out of the firewall.

the hose has aluminumed heat tape on it where it crosses the head on its way to intake manilfold.

straighten out kinks and check connections

Thanks. I'll check taht.

Kyle