99 SE 2.4L ABS Trac Off Lights

[sting8282firebird]

I have been having the same ABS/Trac Off problems that many people seem to be having, but with a little twist. I have 112,500 miles and have had this problem since around 35,000 i would guess. My ABS/Trac lights come on about once or twice a week on average. It pretty much only happens when i'm leaving the parking lot at work, and it ONLY happens when my car has only been running for <2 or 3 minutes. This has been a pain because i don't like staring at lights on the dash, but they go off after the car is shut off. I plan on cleaning the wire connectors to the speed sensor assembly to see if they are loose or dirty.

The real problem that i am concerned with is the ABS portion. Half the time the lights come on, it comes on at the same time that i have a breaking malfunction that is really hard to explain. When i am driving up to the exit to the parking lot at work, i will lightly hit the brake pedal because i am only driving 5 mph. i will begin to slow down, and when i get to about 2 mph, the brakes seemingly disengage and have more play in the pedal than there was a second before (the pedal pushes down further, but without doing any braking). I will actually continue to roll and speed up if i do not push the brakes harder. Within 2 tire revolutions, i hear a mechanical noise that sounds like metal clapping and then the brakes catch very quickly and i come to a stop fairly abruptly (as if i had been pushing down on the pedal that hard to stop a car moving 2 mph).

I don't think i have never had the ABS light come on in a different situation, but once after it happened in the parking lot, the abs light was still on and i almost plowed through a car that pulled out in front of me in the rain when the ABS did not work.

Hopefully yall will find this easier to understand than every other time i've tried to explain this (like to the dealership 4 or 5 times between 35 and 60 thousand miles, at which point i gave up).

[crazy Jim]

I have the same car/diff engine. When it threw that light I took it in and they replaced the right front ABS wheel sensor. After monitoring this board it seems that the first thing to do is pull the sensors and check to be sure they are intact and undamaged. Next, clean the debris off the magnetic portion and reinstall to see if this clears the code.

[GTP Dad]

Welcome to AF!!

Take the car to someone with an ABS capable scanner. They can scan for codes related to this system. As crazyjim indicated this sounds like a problem with a wheel sensor and the scan will detect the problem. You will either end up with a new sensor/wheel bearing or there is a bad connector that is giving you an intermittant light.