ABS light keeps coming on

[nightryder]

The ABS light and ETS OFF light come on in my car a lot lately. If I shut off the car and start it again the lights go out again. They never come on when I'm driving on the road, only when I make sharp slow turns, like when I'm pulling out of a driveway or parking the car. I can make it come on almost every time by turning the wheel almost all the way to the left and driving forward.

It doesn't make much sense but it seems to only come on when the car is turning a certain way. I assumed it would be a loose connection so I checked the wires on all 4 wheel speed sensors by bending, twisting, and wiggling the wires with the car running, but I can't make the ABS light come on like that. Then as soon as I go to pull out of my driveway the light comes on again and I have to shut the car off to make it go away. It's getting very frustrating.

What's even stranger is that I can start the car, leave it in park, and turn the wheel back and forth and nothing happens. The light only comes on when moving ahead around a sharp turn.

I also tried cleaning all of the speed sensor plugs with contact cleaner but it didn't help. I read somewhere that if it was one of the sensors the whole wheel bearing had to be replaced, but the front sensors on my car seem to be just held on with 1 bolt. The gear shaped piece that the sensor reads is built on, but the sensor looks replaceable on the front. Can they be bought and replaced separately?

Any suggestions before I go to the dealer to get this checked?

[AeR0]

lol your not the only one with that problem... ive even jacked my car up took off my 18" rims as i thught it was b/c they are on a 40 series tire... still have the problem... im not sure what the problem is but im sure the solution to mine and your problem is to swap the hub assembly :-S

[Nighthawk243]

Did you check the battery cables?

That caused me many ABS lights in the 1995. Cleaned the cables, it went away.

[Peyman]

that same thing happend on my 96... and it was also when i made a turn...a certain type of turn... lol... it ended up being the abs sensor going bad.... after changing it... 6 months later the other sensor went bad and i said "screw this...the abs light can stay on"

[rixGAphx]

Whimps :roll:





:D :D

The ABS is one of the BEST features of the GA, and compared to many other ABS's it is very dependable.

Such as, if the engine is in 'P', then the ABS is 'off' ('cuz the car is smart enough to know it doesn't need brakes then).
So even if you CUT the wires to the wheel sensors, an ABS fault won't be shown.
Even if you put the car in 'D', and cut the wires, a fault might not be thrown.
Why not?
The wheel speed 'sensor' isn't really a sensor, like a fuel level sensor. With a fuel level sensor, current comes from the 'puter, to the sensor (which 'modifies' the current, giving it value or data) and then the current returnns to the 'puter; so the 'puter would know if a wire waer cut, since the current souldn't 'come back' to it.
A wheel speed sensor doesn't get current (electrical power) from the 'puter; rather, each sensor is actually a special kind of miniture power GENERATOR, called a 'Hall Effect' device.
The wheel speed 'sensor' MAKES current that goes to the 'puter, which reads the data; the other wire is return path to the wheel speed sensor.

So when the wheels aren't turning, no current is going to the ABS module; it has know way of knowing if a sensor/wire has been damaged or cut, since it's not getting data or expecting to.

Only when you drive, and the ABS module gets data from 3 OTHER sensors, does the module realize that, "Hey, one of these ain't working."

Take the car to a brake shop and get an estimate; they'll plug-in to their computer and determine which sensor (or its cable) is faulty.

Hope this helps,
-Rick

[nightryder]

Actually I already tested that. If I unplug a sensor with the car in park it triggers the light, so if it was a broken wire I would assume it would do the same thing. Also, I tried jacking up one of the wheels at a time, putting the car in drive, and letting the wheel spin on its own while the car was idling. I tried moving around the wires like this and it still didn't make the light come on. I can go as far as I like on the highway, the light only triggers while making slow sharp turns, like coming out of a parking spot. That's why I'm still convinced that it's a loose connection somewhere.

I even tried swapping the 2 front sensors from my old car (also a 98 GA), and the problem is the same. Unless I got really bad luck and those sensors were faulty too. The light doesn't come on when making turns in reverse, but as far as I know the abs doesn't work in reverse. I found that out the hard way when I backed my car down my icy driveway last winter, lol.

I agree that the ABS system on a GA is pretty good, at least I find it good. That's why I really want to get it fixed. I just hope it isn't a rear sensor, as those are built in to the wheel hub.

I got an appointment at the dealer for monday anyways, so hopefully they will figure it out. I hope they can tell the difference between a faulty sensor and a faulty wire going to the sensor, so I don't have to replace unnecessary parts. It may be hard for them to find it, since sometimes it can be hard to get the light to come on when you want it to. I'm probably going to trigger the light before I leave and leave the car running when I get to the dealer.

BTW does anyone know the location of the ABS module? I haven't tried swapping that yet. I could try swapping it out of my old car, if it's any good.

[GrandAmRyder25]

i have somewhat of a similar problem the only difference is that the abs lights turns on when i shift to drive and accelerate even if i don't make a turn or anything like that. i was also wondering where the abs module is or where the fuses might be.