318ti.org forum - View Single Post - ABS / ASC bye bye in thick snow... Happen to you?

Eric · 05-13-2010, 01:18 AM

So, to wrap this up, I fixed it.

As I had posted, for several years, I had the ABS & ASC lights in my '98 coming on after driving in heavy snow, and staying on a few hours to a few days (of course, with no ABS or ASC function). This winter, they came on and never went off.

I tried hosing down the wheels and the plugs, removing and cleaning the plugs, and protecting them with Vaseline, but nothing worked.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got a chance, and went around with an ohmmeter pulling the plugs and testing the continuity. I tried to test from the ABS controller (to check the entire length of the wire runs), but I couldn't get it out from its cozy spot behind the glove compartment, so I left it there, rather than risk breaking it.

I had to make little test wires for the meter, because it isn't possible to fit two meter probes into the deep ABS plugs at once. I took 18ga wire, stripped the ends long, and wrapped them into little springs - one end around the test probe, the other just hanging out there, to be connected to the sensor plugs (see photos).

I tried wrapping the sensor ends around a piece of 18ga wire, but that proved to be too tight a fit on the pins, so next I used the test probe ends at a guide for both ends of the wire, which was a bit big, but worked. I think about 16ga would be the right size. With the wire wrapped around the test probes, I took the other end and, carefully, fished each piece down into the ABS plug, fitting it over each of the tiny protruding prongs. I needed to do a little wiggling to get the contact right, but I could in each case. (Wiggle to much one way - no contact. Wiggle too much the other way - the wires touch each other).

When I finally got the contacts right, I found that the Left Front sensor had no continuity (∞ Ohms), the Right Front had 1.080KΩ, and the rears had about 1.008KΩ and 1.006KΩ (as I describe here).
Note that I measured the fronts between the two pins that would be the eyes of a face ( °.° ), not the one that would be the nose, which is just a ground

I tried to remove the bad sensor, but found it had become a permanent part of the spindle - I removed the Allen screw, then put a pair of Vise-Grips on the screw ear, and tried to gently rotate the sensor from side to side in the bore, using lots of top-notch penetrating oil (KROIL). All I did was break off the ear after about five minutes of twisting, leaving the stub of the sensor that was impossible to get a good grip on.

So, I poked around on the interwebs, ordered a new sensor, a new hub nut, and a new hub cover from Pelican ($54 for an OEM ATE sensor), and waited a few days.

When I first got the sensor, I wanted to see whether it fixed the problem with the minimum of work, so I reached behind the tire, disconnected the old sensor and plugged in the new one, then started the car. No change - the same two lights stayed on. I turned it off and started it a couple more times, but that didn't do it.

Today, I got a chance to actually work on the car.
I pulled the wheel, caliper, carrier, rotor, and hub. The inner race stayed on the spindle, as it tends to. I covered it with a rag to keep some of the crap off of it.
With the hub off, you can clearly see the ABS sensor poking straight through from the back side. There was no need to remove the sheet metal shrouds, as they weren't in the way. I tried hitting the end of the sensor with a sledgehammer, which caused it to mushroom and disintegrate. I broke off all the protruding end stuff and tried again, but all I was doing was mushrooming the end. I reached in with a hacksaw blade, and cut right through the body of the sensor, right against the surface of the spindle, inside the gap between the spindle and the inner brake splash guard (didn't take a picture, but you'll know it when you see it). The sensor cut like butter, and the end came right out, leaving the stuck portion inside the spindle hole. I tried knocking this out with a large pin punch, but all that did was to punch right through the other side without moving the sensor, so I grabbed a 3/8" extension and hit it with that, and it popped right out after a couple of good whacks. The inside of the bore was a bit rusty, but not terrible. I hit it with the tiny sanding drum on a Moto-Tool, and it looked nice. I put some Nevr-Seize on the appropriate portion of the new sensor and gently but firmly worked it into the hole, screwed it down (bottomed it by hand first), then cleaned and put everything else together (new hub nut torqued to 214 ft/lbs and staked).

When I started it up, as before, I had both lights. I backed out of the driveway (about 40 feet), drove off, and the lights went off after about 10 more feet, and haven't come back on

.

So, with any luck, I've fixed it.

Now, about that airbag light...

05-13-2010, 01:18 AM	#17
Eric Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Hudson Valley Posts: 229 iTrader: (3) Photo Gallery	ABS Fixed - L Front Sensor So, to wrap this up, I fixed it. As I had posted, for several years, I had the ABS & ASC lights in my '98 coming on after driving in heavy snow, and staying on a few hours to a few days (of course, with no ABS or ASC function). This winter, they came on and never went off. I tried hosing down the wheels and the plugs, removing and cleaning the plugs, and protecting them with Vaseline, but nothing worked. A couple of weeks ago, I finally got a chance, and went around with an ohmmeter pulling the plugs and testing the continuity. I tried to test from the ABS controller (to check the entire length of the wire runs), but I couldn't get it out from its cozy spot behind the glove compartment, so I left it there, rather than risk breaking it. I had to make little test wires for the meter, because it isn't possible to fit two meter probes into the deep ABS plugs at once. I took 18ga wire, stripped the ends long, and wrapped them into little springs - one end around the test probe, the other just hanging out there, to be connected to the sensor plugs (see photos). I tried wrapping the sensor ends around a piece of 18ga wire, but that proved to be too tight a fit on the pins, so next I used the test probe ends at a guide for both ends of the wire, which was a bit big, but worked. I think about 16ga would be the right size. With the wire wrapped around the test probes, I took the other end and, carefully, fished each piece down into the ABS plug, fitting it over each of the tiny protruding prongs. I needed to do a little wiggling to get the contact right, but I could in each case. (Wiggle to much one way - no contact. Wiggle too much the other way - the wires touch each other). When I finally got the contacts right, I found that the Left Front sensor had no continuity (∞ Ohms), the Right Front had 1.080KΩ, and the rears had about 1.008KΩ and 1.006KΩ (as I describe here). Note that I measured the fronts between the two pins that would be the eyes of a face ( °.° ), not the one that would be the nose, which is just a ground I tried to remove the bad sensor, but found it had become a permanent part of the spindle - I removed the Allen screw, then put a pair of Vise-Grips on the screw ear, and tried to gently rotate the sensor from side to side in the bore, using lots of top-notch penetrating oil (KROIL). All I did was break off the ear after about five minutes of twisting, leaving the stub of the sensor that was impossible to get a good grip on. So, I poked around on the interwebs, ordered a new sensor, a new hub nut, and a new hub cover from Pelican ($54 for an OEM ATE sensor), and waited a few days. When I first got the sensor, I wanted to see whether it fixed the problem with the minimum of work, so I reached behind the tire, disconnected the old sensor and plugged in the new one, then started the car. No change - the same two lights stayed on. I turned it off and started it a couple more times, but that didn't do it. Today, I got a chance to actually work on the car. I pulled the wheel, caliper, carrier, rotor, and hub. The inner race stayed on the spindle, as it tends to. I covered it with a rag to keep some of the crap off of it. With the hub off, you can clearly see the ABS sensor poking straight through from the back side. There was no need to remove the sheet metal shrouds, as they weren't in the way. I tried hitting the end of the sensor with a sledgehammer, which caused it to mushroom and disintegrate. I broke off all the protruding end stuff and tried again, but all I was doing was mushrooming the end. I reached in with a hacksaw blade, and cut right through the body of the sensor, right against the surface of the spindle, inside the gap between the spindle and the inner brake splash guard (didn't take a picture, but you'll know it when you see it). The sensor cut like butter, and the end came right out, leaving the stuck portion inside the spindle hole. I tried knocking this out with a large pin punch, but all that did was to punch right through the other side without moving the sensor, so I grabbed a 3/8" extension and hit it with that, and it popped right out after a couple of good whacks. The inside of the bore was a bit rusty, but not terrible. I hit it with the tiny sanding drum on a Moto-Tool, and it looked nice. I put some Nevr-Seize on the appropriate portion of the new sensor and gently but firmly worked it into the hole, screwed it down (bottomed it by hand first), then cleaned and put everything else together (new hub nut torqued to 214 ft/lbs and staked). When I started it up, as before, I had both lights. I backed out of the driveway (about 40 feet), drove off, and the lights went off after about 10 more feet, and haven't come back on . So, with any luck, I've fixed it. Now, about that airbag light... Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Eric; 11-06-2012 at 09:01 PM.