Another day, another broke truck...

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
Driving Karen’s truck to go pick up the Yukon last night...

“Why is your ABS light on?”

“Oh, it comes and goes.”

SMH. Yeah hon. Going into Winter with intermittent ABS in a pickup truck and not telling me about it or getting it fixed is brilliant.

No I didn’t say it. Note the lack of quotation marks.
 
Quick and easy repair.

Get a screw driver, (phillips or flat, your choice) a new roll of electrical tape and a pair of scissors and a 12 pack of your favorite adult malted beverage.

Use the screw driver to poke a hole through the cellophane covering over the tape, remove the cellophane, then pull out about a 1/2 inch of tape. Use the scissors to cut the tape. Place the tape over the offending light. Drink favorite beverage until all gone. Tell wife you fixed it. Leave tools on work bench so the wife will really think you did something.....


NOTE: Beware of any quick fix you see on the internet.....
 
The problem isn't whether or not the ABS is working. The problem is whether there's an issue with the ABS system that could cause the brakes to fail entirely, because the ABS controller has the capability to end up removing all ability to brake. That happened to me in my Ford Excursion about 10 years ago. Fortunately I was able to run over a few Priuses (Prii?) to slow down. And, well, Karen's truck (being a Ford) I suspect has the same unit.
 
Quick and easy repair.

Get a screw driver, (phillips or flat, your choice) a new roll of electrical tape and a pair of scissors and a 12 pack of your favorite adult malted beverage.

Use the screw driver to poke a hole through the cellophane covering over the tape, remove the cellophane, then pull out about a 1/2 inch of tape. Use the scissors to cut the tape. Place the tape over the offending light. Drink favorite beverage until all gone. Tell wife you fixed it. Leave tools on work bench so the wife will really think you did something.....


NOTE: Beware of any quick fix you see on the internet.....

I knew a guy that worked for a used car dealer. If they had a car with a warning light it was immediately addressed.... by snipping the wires. No more warning light... ever.
 
I knew a guy that worked for a used car dealer. If they had a car with a warning light it was immediately addressed.... by snipping the wires. No more warning light... ever.

Used to use a very tiny drill bit (1/64) through the plastic and into the bulb, done using the fingers. Then some black tape to cover the hole. Noticeable only if you took a bright flashlight and looked for the tape. But even the bare hole was difficult to see. 90 weight oil to bring up the oil pressure. 20 weight motor oil in the power steering to quiet it down.

I knew all the tricks back in the day. (late 70s) I drew the line with brakes. Either fix them or junk the car. I did know of one used car dealer that would block the brake line to one wheel if that brake was noisy. I could not do that.

I came to the shop one morning and the owner was burning all his records. His wife got on to him..... "You'll go to jail for doing that..!!" "I'll go to jail if I don't.!!" was the response.

Great guy to work for. He paid me $15 an hour when minimum wage was $2.75 or $3.00 an hour. He once gave me a great deal on a stolen 75 Firebird. When it was found, he got me out of jail and gave me a Pontiac 455 engine with a three deuce carb set up in return. I put it in a 76 Firebird (not stolen) and ran it until I had to sell it. This guy carried a concealed pistol long before permits were available. He would buy a car at auction for 300 bucks, then put it on his lot for 300 down, 50 bucks a month for 12 months. Usually that car would be repossessed and sold twice before it would stay gone. He paid me 50 bucks for each time I repoed a car. Everything was in cash. It was not unusual for him to have 20-25,000 bucks on him. I was cash rich at the time but no bank account. No future for me so I joined the army.....

I must add that used cars is a totally different deal now. Most used cars do not need anything more than a wash job and maybe new tires now. The used car dealers I know here in town do not even have mechanics. If any work is needed it goes to a reputable shop. How boring.....
 
The problem isn't whether or not the ABS is working. The problem is whether there's an issue with the ABS system that could cause the brakes to fail entirely, because the ABS controller has the capability to end up removing all ability to brake. That happened to me in my Ford Excursion about 10 years ago. Fortunately I was able to run over a few Priuses (Prii?) to slow down. And, well, Karen's truck (being a Ford) I suspect has the same unit.

The conversation has begun. LOL.

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The ABS light on Karen’s truck kept doing its intermittent thing so I finally drove it over to someplace that had a code reader that would read ABS codes. Apparently my old code reader doesn’t speak ABS. :)

Left front wheel sensor.

Could be dirty, could be going bad, decided to just replace it. Part is on order to show up tomorrow at the Parts Gettin’ shop.

Doesn’t look like too bad of a job to swap it.
 
Technically my wife drives it. ;)

And she likes it only because a “real man” will change her ABS sensor for her. Ha.
It’s okay Nate. Really. Until your wife has a deep voice and shaves more often than you...
 
Crawl under and make sure it is still in the right spot, then make sure the connector isn't corroded. Either of those things could cause it, then send the part back, otherwise replace.
 
I likely have the same issue on my 05 chevy 3500. That is what it was last time. In my truck it is integrated into the wheel bearing hub.
 
I likely have the same issue on my 05 chevy 3500. That is what it was last time. In my truck it is integrated into the wheel bearing hub.

On most of the Ford's I've had, the wheel sensor is mounted to the back of the bearing hub and uses a slotted ring on the brake rotor to measure wheel spin. Sometimes those slots on the ring behind the rotor get gunked up with grease/mud/sand and prevent the sensor from "looking through" the slot.
 
And next time I see her I'm going to tell her you said that. Boy are you gonna get it...

LOL. Unfortunately (for you) she already knows I say that, so you won’t be having any fun with it. Haha.

It’s okay Nate. Really. Until your wife has a deep voice and shaves more often than you...

Well, she is a baritone, but not a bass in her quartet or chorus. :) Laura is their bass and she can probably sing lower than me, but I wouldn’t know and don’t want to know about any of her shaving habits. She also rides a Harley, so...

On most of the Ford's I've had, the wheel sensor is mounted to the back of the bearing hub and uses a slotted ring on the brake rotor to measure wheel spin. Sometimes those slots on the ring behind the rotor get gunked up with grease/mud/sand and prevent the sensor from "looking through" the slot.

Yeah I’ve seen the videos of cleaning them out, but figure if this was a dirt road induced thing they’d all be doing it. Plus the sensor is easy to change on the Fords. Probably because they know they suck and need replacement. LOL. Wouldn’t be too surprised if the washboard road didn’t kill it anyway. They don’t look all that tough.

But I might find that slotted thing on the back of the rotor filled with junk. We shall see.

It isn’t those stupid cam phasers so the parts cost looks cheap compared to that recent fix. Haha.
 
Yeah I’ve seen the videos of cleaning them out, but figure if this was a dirt road induced thing they’d all be doing it. Plus the sensor is easy to change on the Fords. Probably because they know they suck and need replacement. LOL. Wouldn’t be too surprised if the washboard road didn’t kill it anyway. They don’t look all that tough.

But I might find that slotted thing on the back of the rotor filled with junk. We shall see.

It isn’t those stupid cam phasers so the parts cost looks cheap compared to that recent fix. Haha.

Yeah, I think it's just a single bolt that holds them on. I've never had one of the wheel sensors go out, I've just installed a few brake rotors on my Fords and saw the inner workings.
 
And it came off because you were driving so fast, amIright?

It was kids (insert something special here) day at school and we brought a race car for the kids to paint. We left it on for one race. And it did come off, most of it anyway due to a simple slow one complete rollover, which resulted in new body sheet metal.

Someone else was driving that night.
 
Sure it was...


Actually a week earlier a trailer fell on my right foot and I had a cast on it. I was like monster club foot for 6 weeks until I got one of those new fangled walking cast.

Plus, someone had to keep a watch on the alcohol.....
 
It was kids (insert something special here) day at school and we brought a race car for the kids to paint. We left it on for one race. And it did come off, most of it anyway due to a simple slow one complete rollover, which resulted in new body sheet metal.

Someone else was driving that night.

I was sure impressed at how much regular paint explodes into little chips and shards at the airplane incident today when the airplane hit the road sign. There were little pieces of paint chips and long shards scattered all down the road from the impact point to the ditch... just everywhere.

Anyway, no, I didn’t make it to the auto parts store to pick up the ABS sensor today. They also didn’t call, which they said they would, but I bet the part is there.

Haha. I got, umm... kinda busy.

Guess I’ll call them in the morning and pick it up on my way to my ( hopefully! ) boring day at work!!!

Seriously. Enough with 2017 already!!!! Haha.
 
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