98 ABS kicks in

We own a 98 windstar... whenever we drive it and step on the brakes and get down to 10mph or less... the abs kicks in... the light doesnt come on. So the first thing my uncle checked (he is a certified master mechanic) was that he checked the abs brain... and it checks out fine... so he put his computer on there and the wheel speed sensors are a lil goofy. when the van is sitting still in park 1 of the wheels will say it is at 3 mph or so... my mom took the van to f&f tires and they said they couldnt figure out what was wrong with it. My uncle has worked on a few vans (i think they were chryslers i believe) and changed the wheel sensors and it fixed the problem only a few times... any ideas?

Hello

Welcome to AFs!

On my 95 I had the same problem. It turned out to be the rear wheel senors being dirty and having too big of a gap. I cleaned them and closed the gap to where they didn't rub against the ring. Also, my 95 has repackable rear wheel bearings. I found that they had developed slack and I believe this also caused an increased gap with the sensor.

Regards

Dan

FWIW, my '98 has the exact same symptom. I also believe it to be my rear sensors, but I was unable to get the brake hub off for the life of me to be able to look at the rear sensors.

My workaround until I can get it fixed was to unplug one of the rear sensors, which will turn on the ABS light and functionally disable the ABS. I'd rather have working ABS, but no ABS is a LOT better than having ABS that keeps kicking in under 10 MPH.

Dale

A good inpection of the exciter ring on all wheels would be my "first thing to do list" sugestion to rule then out. Check for cracks, corrosion and dirt build up.