The Lemon Fool

Strange thing happening with my 16 year old Honda Accord.

The ABS light started coming on after about 30 miles or so of driving. When stopping the engine and restarting the light would go off an come back again some time later.

Then we had the wet weather, and driving on wet roads the ABS light did not come on at all.

Now it is dry again the ABS light is coming back on...taking about 50 miles to do so now.

I am guessing it is dirty sensors on the wheels...any other ideas?

John

I think you'll probably have to get the car scanned, RS. Depending on the car, the warning can be a side-effect of various "computer says no" conditions. On VWs, a popular recourse is to disconnect the battery for 30 minutes to see whether that knocks the silliness out of the system. But that's just voodoo, I suppose?

You're not getting a yellow light from the engine management at the same time?

BJ

I had something similar on a BMW once. It did out to be the sensor. One thing I did learn is that it's much more cost effective to get the unit serviced by a specialist rather than replace it through BMW.

MM

I had the ABS light problem similar to yours last year. This was on a 15 year old Vito. Online research suggested a possibility was a dodgy brake light switch under the brake pedal. This being a cheap component that I could easily replace myself I did so and that fixed the issue.

If it had it not done so then I feared that a wheel sensor might need to be changed and that is not something I could do myself given the level of corrosion on the wheel. Plus I wouldn’t know which one to change.

I was lucky - hope your fix is as easy.

bungeejumper wrote:I think you'll probably have to get the car scanned, RS. Depending on the car, the warning can be a side-effect of various "computer says no" conditions. On VWs, a popular recourse is to disconnect the battery for 30 minutes to see whether that knocks the silliness out of the system. But that's just voodoo, I suppose?

You're not getting a yellow light from the engine management at the same time?

BJ

No, fortunately it is just the ABS light and as the worst that means is that I have no ABS when the light is on then I can live with that. It is nice that in wet and slippery conditions it would appear I have no problems.

John

Given the age of the car I guessing it will be the exciter ring in the wheel hub, this goes past the sensor causing a pulse that the cars abs braking system detects.
If it corrodes the abs system is just reading rust / corrosion so the pulse is intermittent. You will need a scanner to determine which wheel it is, also a MOT failure if the light is on during the test. Hope this explains the problem in layman’s term

Beg borrow or buy an OBD-II scan.

That will usually narrow it down significantly.

Blue151 wrote:... also a MOT failure if the light is on during the test.

Yes.

How easy is it to remove the bulb

If you do that you'd better hope you don't have a bulb failure indicator.

Blue151 wrote:Given the age of the car I guessing it will be the exciter ring in the wheel hub, this goes past the sensor causing a pulse that the cars abs braking system detects.
If it corrodes the abs system is just reading rust / corrosion so the pulse is intermittent. You will need a scanner to determine which wheel it is, also a MOT failure if the light is on during the test. Hope this explains the problem in layman’s term

Wot he said And yes, as stated the ABS light remaining on is an MoT fail.

MoTMork

staffordian wrote:

Blue151 wrote:... also a MOT failure if the light is on during the test.

Yes.

How easy is it to remove the bulb

Naughty naughty smacky botty faily testy Also checked in the MoT is the presence and functionality of the warning lamp ... *

MM


*I have failed two cars wot had a bit of insulting tape over the warning lamp because "it was a distraction" to the driver Indeed on my own Range Rover some numpty had removed the bulb prior to my purchasing it, a problem (and the cause) rectified damn sharpish

MonsterMork wrote:

Blue151 wrote:Given the age of the car I guessing it will be the exciter ring in the wheel hub, this goes past the sensor causing a pulse that the cars abs braking system detects.
If it corrodes the abs system is just reading rust / corrosion so the pulse is intermittent. You will need a scanner to determine which wheel it is, also a MOT failure if the light is on during the test. Hope this explains the problem in layman’s term

Wot he said And yes, as stated the ABS light remaining on is an MoT fail.

MoTMork

As I think I explained the light only comes on after thirty miles or so...fortunately my MOT garage is about a mile away.

John