'90 ABS Sensor Update

[poplifedc]

When you start the car, the light is out, then you start moving and the light comes one. Now you’re thinking, what now? First you go to your manual, then the service manual.

It says access the little area on the passenger’s side rear. You get a mirror, wait until dark and read the blinking light. You decipher the code to find out it is one of the wheel sensor. So now you go down to the Stealership and order the $156.00 part. If you’re good, you put it on or pay $100.00 to have it installed.

While you are waiting for 3 days for the part to arrive you notice the tire where the bad sensor is looks low. You check the tire pressure and low and behold it is 20lbs less then the others. You spend seventy-five cents to make all the tires the same pressure. Bingo, ABS light doesn't come on.

This happened to me yesterday. I'm still waiting for the sensor to come on, but the ABS light is out. Then I started thinking how the sensor works. If it detects just the slightest difference in the rotation as it relates to the other wheels, it will throw a code. In a sense this is kind of like a low tire pressure warning I had on my corvette.

When a tire looses pressure, it rotates slower than the other 3.

So, before you go through all the motions I went through, check your tire pressure first. Then work from there.

It is STILL a great car at 170,000 miles.

[poplifedc]

Crap. The light is back. I jumped in it this morning. As I started rolling the light came on. I'll check the code and see what it is THIS time. Then check the tire pressures again.