ABS, TRAC and Brake lights on at the same time...WTF...?

Neonisti2000 · Post by **Neonisti2000** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:23 pm

Hello to everyone!

So, today I got this weird problem. When I was driving back to home, suddenly both ABS and TRAC OFF-lights came on. Car seemed fine, nothing special. So I continued driving cause I was just few miles from home. Then after a while, brake light also came on.
So, at that point I had a christmas tree on my cluster...

I drove the car off road and shut it. Then started it again. Started fine and seemed ok. But again, all lights came on after while...
I drove it home and shut it again. Then re-started and again, normal idling and all good. Got this weird smell thou, brakes propably smelling...
But after the second re-start, the lights DIDN'T came on anymore.

I took it for a testdrive. Tested trac and ok. Tested brakes + ABS and they ok too.

And now the car seems fine.

So, anyone got an idea what the hell was it?

... sidenote: I did a pretty hard acceleration on highway and trac + abs lights came on after that (slippery road), so could it be that the trac control and brakes just overheated?
I remember reading from somewhere that if brakes overheats, it takes about four minutes to cool and "reset" the system....
And that seems like the timeline on this case.
I also have to check the pads and fluid tomorrow morning...
And NO DTC's...

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:51 pm

was your park brake up at all? maybe just a little? any dings? or just lights?

Neonisti2000 · Post by **Neonisti2000** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 3:24 pm

kc2002acr wrote:was your park brake up at all? maybe just a little? any dings? or just lights?

I'm not 100% sure but I think that there was ding sound when the brake-light came on too. But only once and it was same kind like the "fuel low" ding... Not the "fuel low" thou

And parking brake was all the way down, I checked it as soon as the lights came on...

I just checked the fluid level and it's ok, well above ADD...almost at FULL.... So thats not it.

BTW, is it normal for Neons brakes to bind a little when in e.g. waiting in lights? I'm not talking about severe drag, just enough bind that it holds when the car is in a minor downhill position...

SlvrACR · Post by **SlvrACR** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 4:35 pm

Check your abs wires in the front. They can come unplugged and this is what happens

Neonisti2000 · Post by **Neonisti2000** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:23 am

Okey, some update:

I started my car this morning and the lights came back. So, at that point I decided to take it to the dealer.
They hooked the DRB into the the car and check the ABS/Brake system.
And this is what they found: "LF WHEEL SPEED SIGNAL FAILURE"

So, according to that and what the mechanic said, it's my left front speed sensor that is not working properly...

Estimated cost: 125€ (175$) for the sensor and 60-75€ of worktime.
Total: around 200€ (280$)....

Nice...

It's just weird that sometimes the lights don't come on at all and sometimes they do...
Like it could be somekind of connection issue or something.

And I also noticed that when I start the car, its fine but after a while there's like this trac-sound coming from engine area (grinding sound...) for a second or two and my ocometer starts to blink "trac". Then the lights comes back...weird...

Well, I have to check the ABS wires and connectors if there would be some dirt buildup that is causing it...hopefully... That would be cheap and easy solution.

Neonisti2000 · Post by **Neonisti2000** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:48 am

UPDATE:

I checked and rechecked the lines, sensor, connections etc.
No help, lights kept coming back so I took it to the dealer.

They changed the bad sensor from left front and NO lights anymore...
Problem fixed.

BlackRoseRacing · Post by **BlackRoseRacing** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:04 am

to bad I did not see this earlier....
When an ABS sensor is failing, what you described are the common symptoms before failure. The reason the lights were gone after you restarted the car is because you reset the ABS system. When the wheels start rotating thats when the system detects a problem because of the readings from the sensors from the wheels rotating.
Glad you got the problem fixed though...

Post by **occasional demons** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:34 am

As far as the brakes dragging, check your slides on the knuckles, they may have deep enough wear in them to cause the pads to stick in place. Just something to look at. I don't think there is a good fix, if that is the case, since the brake pedestals are cast as part of the knuckle, instead of bolt ons. They can be filed down, but that just makes more room for the pads to slap against the slide, making the problem worse.