Slightly OT- ABS Light

[davis911s]

OK the ABS light in my 96 GMC Jimmy (same as Chevy Blazer) is staying on. The brakes are working but I am unsure about the ABS. I have tried unhooking the battery to try to "trick" the computer into resetting itself, I heard that sometimes works. Anyways I am wondering what else I can do. I hate to go to dealers, I guess I am too damn cheap.

Any ideas??

Shawn

[john70t]

I've heard most of the time it's the wheel sensors or the module itself.
You can jack up the car, disconnect the sensor wire(coming from the magnet on the toothed wheel ring) and spin the tire.

The output from the wire should be about .5 to 1 volt AC!! (I think) but most importanly all should send the same voltage. (It's a magnetic pickup like in a lot of distributors- each tooth breaks the field and creates a small voltage spike). There usually an ajustable air gap also. Check for bad wires, grounds...the usual.

The module might have a series of trouble-code lights on the outside(probably not) that you can get info from the manufacturer. You can get Alldata or Mitchells on Demand for your car (~$25/yr) which may give info for special jumper procedures for trouble code retrieval. It could be a stuck valve as well....

Call your dealership for warentees and/or recalls...it's almost a new car and should be fixed for free. Good hunting.

Just infos sake- the regular brakes will keep working. The ABS pulsating fluid pressure relief fuction will not though.

[john70t]

I forgot in last post- if you disconnect the battery, you will clear all codes until the next time you drive it (the problem is still there remember?), but you lose all the the adaptive learn strategies stored by the computer for fuel trim look-up tables... meaning the car might run like crap until it resets.
If the problem is fixed, the light should go out in two drive cycles.

[davis911s]

Thanks John.

You can jack up the car, disconnect the sensor wire(coming from the magnet on the toothed wheel ring) and spin the tire.

Any idea where this would be on mine? I admit I haven't had to do much work on this.
Thanks for the tip on resetting all codes, I guess I shouldn't have done that

...it's almost a new car and should be fixed for free.

Hahahaha I don't know about you guys, but dealers here don't do anything for free, they are just money hungry vultures that charge $75 hour. Plus it has almost 200,000 kms on it already.

Shawn