ABS probs anyone?

[Rob]

Yes I know, I know. New fangled electrickery and all that!

But the ABS warning light keeps coming on. First happened a couple of weeks ago, killed ignition, restarted, light gone. Forgot about it.

Came on again yesterday on the way back from the Plains. Came on a few times and disappeared a few times. It was okay late last night and this morning but came back on the way home from work.

Surf is a 3 channel brake system - fronts are independant and the rear has one brake line between them.

Only other thing to go wrong recently is a rear hub seal - one of the drums is full of oil and grease. ABS sensor is around the same place.

What do I check for?
Wheel sensors? How?
Earthing fault?
Something else?
My bank balance?
The bottle of JD?

Would be nice not to go to the dealer

Cheers
Rob

[TonyN]

You may have yanked a wire on the sender, check all the plugs and wiring for the ABS junk. Or a sender has had enough, steal Matts while he's not looking and try them.

If the seal is shot, you may have filled the gaps in the sensor gear with muck, and it can't get a reading.

Otherwise pull the fuse out, who needs ABS anyway you big gurl!!!



Good luck

[Rob]

k, will do

Off to search yotatech to see if there are any common probs and easy fixes as it's a bit wet and dark to mess about under the truck!

[kazam401]

Hi Rob,

I would agree with Tony about the muck in the sensor judging by the state of your rear drum in the photo.

It ain't much of a job getting to the rear sensors, just drum off, unclip h/brake cable, un-bolt brake pipe, 4 bolts to get the h/shaft out and pull. Sensor is situated in front of inner oil seal. Your sensor gear might be full of !!!!e also.

[Rob]

Just done a bit of research, seems quite common for wheel sensors to get dirty or faulty (in general, not Surfs specifically).
Replaced drums and shoes about 3-4 weeks ago and there was absolutely no oil leak.... The ABS light came on a week or two ago for the first time....
So it seems fairly likely that it's that sensor thats the problem.
Cheers for the help. I'll just add it to the list of things the garage needs to do when they do the bearing and seals!!!

[Vagrant No2]

Alot of ABS sensors rely on a resistance in the cable for inital system check ie turn on ignition and the light goes out after 5 secs or so . If dirt or corrosion gets in connections a high resistance is in cable and light stays on . If light comes on when driving then the 'sectors ' are blocked OR metal flackes have become magnatised to sensor ends (the bit by the sectors) . If the sectors are dirty clean between and re try , if the light still comes on when driving then disconnect the wire/connector to sensors in turn and clean the ends by the sectors . By disconnecting the cable the magnatism is lossed and most of, if any, metal fragment/dirt will have fallen off , but wipe the end of the sensors with cloth .


Condensed version .

Rick

[Rob]

Cheers for the explanation Rick, certainly makes more sense now.