Traction Control + ABS Light Solved

[sunnysmith]

I have seen a lot of posts about traction control light and the ABS light so I thought I would share all the details about my problem and the fix.

Traction Control and ABS lights would come on and stay on. Sometimes after the van was started, the lights would be off but then they would come back on after it had been driven a few hundred feet. Before the lights came on when you pressed the brake pedal you could feel the ABS working then the lights would come on. There were no codes stored in the ECU.

First thing we thought was the sensor was bad. Bob checked the sensor and found no reading. If he messed with the cable he could get a reading, so the problem was a broken wire within the cable (keep reading, this is not the whole solution). You could not tell visually that there was any problem. Bob replaced the sensor with a Ford Focus (it fits) sensor and he could get a reading, but the problem continued. After he hooked it up to his computer and drove around, he could see that the sensor would read the correct speed and then every once in a while show 14mph.

He ordered a new bearing and new sensor. I have attached a photo of the bearing. There is a magnetic ring on the bearing that is used by the sensor to determine the wheel speed. You will see in the photo that this ring is chewed up and in a couple of places torn off. He put the new bearing on and everything works correctly.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM: This bearing is really not shielded well from the inside of the hub/wheel. Clearly something got into this area and chewed it up, so I would caution all of you to drive carefully/slowly on gravel roads, etc. There really is not a good way to check this without taking it completely apart. I guess the best think to do is hook it up to a computer and check the readings while you are driving. If you see something that is not consistent, then you probably have abad magnetic ring on the bearing.

I hope this helps you guys that are having the problem or those that will have this problem. We spent a lot of time on this trying to figure it out.

Sunny

[BSUPC]

I was just about to make a post on here on this very subject. Took a hard hit today and now my traction control light stays on. Will have to check the bearing as I can find no other reason for the light being on.