ABS Light

I have a 97 Passport that keeps having the ABS and Brake light come on. I have a haynes manual and it indicates that a wire on the diagnostics port can be shorted to ground to get the failure code.Does anyone know which wire or if this even applies to my vehicle? I have tried using an scan tool but no codes were produced.Any assistance would greatly be appriciated. I have checked the brake fluid level and it is fine,and the brakes seem to be working fine too.


Thanks

Thomas Ross

Try this (pdf): http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=2503454&postcount=18 Compliments of LetsRodeo!!

G/luck
Joel

Thanks for the reply, I tried it but nothing happened.I saw that the info related to a 99 rodeo, I am not sure if it is the same for a 97. The light has gone out for now but I expect it to return. Any info regarding the ABS system would still greatly be appriciated.

Thanks

Thomas Ross

My 1999 Rodeo ABS light came on. I thought I needed to replace the speed sensor on the rear differential. It turned out to be a broken wire in the wire harness by the drivers side rear wheel. Follow the wires from the speed sensor to a connector attached near the "A" arm in the back. The wire broke right at the connector due to vibration. I cut the connectors off and hard wired it. The ABS light went off once the system sees a little speed.

It sounds like this could be your problem with the light coming on intermittantly.

On mine (a '97 Rodeo) it turned out to be the sensor plug itself - actually the socket that the sensor plugged into. The contacts were dirty, so I cleaned them out with WD40 and pipe cleaners, and even with a new sensor they didn't make good contact (wiggling the plug caused intermittent connection). So I just used needlenose pliers to twist the male pins on the new sensor about a quarter turn each (maybe a little less) and carefully re-inserted it, being careful not to bend/crumple the pins in case I twisted them too much to fit into the female sockets. That seemed to do the trick, and now the problem has been gone for a couple weeks and it passed inspection with flying colors :)

I did also notice some of the little retaining clamps that held the cable in place near where the front side of the leaf spring mounts to the frame were rusted off, so I re-fastened the wire in those spots with zip ties to prevent it from getting hung on road debris (especially when four-wheeling). It's important to NOT secure it too tight at the spot where it has to bend to accomodate leaf spring motion, as this may cause enough cyclic motion to eventually fracture it (ref: previous posts in this thread). I left it loose enough that the bending of the wire is spread over a long section of the wire rather than in one small place.

Peace :)

EDIT: My original sensor was probably still good until I touched it. Someone recommended cleaning the inside face of it with WD40 and a toothpick, to get the grime out of the little slots. I couldn't get it out with a toothpick, so I used a needle and wound up digging out copper - OOPS!!! So I ruined it by being stupid. Be careful if you try to clean the face of it - stick with a toothpick, and don't dig too deeply. BTW, unless it's metallic debris, it doesn't even affect it anyway, because the sensor is simply a magnetic field detector (hall effect sensor) and non-metallic matter doesn't really affect magnetic fields.

Can you post a picture of the ABS connector into the Arm control?

I just fixed my ABS light, it was a pain in the arse but was actually easier than i anticipated. It was a wire broken off right at the connector, I tried to rebuild the harness originally and that just didn't not work at all so I cut the harness out and wired the two parts together and voila. I didn't have to disconnect the battery or even drive it, as soon as I was done the light went right out. This damn thing has bothered me for so long and it is finally done.:iceslolan