ABS/Brakes/TSC Lights on

[NavyWife424]

Hello, I have a 1999 Olds Silhouette who has decided to be quite the costly vehicle lately. On Friday driving home my brake pedal got extremely hard but I was still able to brake. My husband took a look and didn't see anything wrong so I have been testing her out. Yesterday while taking the kids to school when I started the car in the morning the ABS, Brake & TSC lights on the dash came on abd the brake pedal was still hard. I dropped it off at the mechanics since I figured it is something way worse that needed to be looked at by a professional. They believe it is an electrical short in the ABS system but they are sure. They said the brake pads, fluid, rotors and drums all look in great condition. He said the worse case scenario is the brain of the ABS system has gone bad and if that be the case I am looking at 1500.00 for the part alone not to mention the 171.00 ABS system check fee I am paying. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar to this problem and could give me some hope. I dumped 1200.00 into the car for a blown intake manifold gasket and now they are saying the rear main seal is leaking and now this. The vehicle only has 83,000 miles on it and I don't have much money left to keep fixing these big ticket problems. I appreciate anyones assistance on this one.

Thanks, Jana

[maxwedge]

The codes accessed using an abs function scanner are required to give any comprehensive advice here.

['97ventureowner]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. Have you checked your rear lights,(brake and tailights) to see if any are out? I had a couple lights out and once I replaced the bulbs the warning lights went out. On my other van the same situation occured, but this time it only occurred on very cold mornings,( below 5 degrees.) Once the vehicle warmed up, the lights went out,( and my rear lights were all working at that time.) A friend of mine who is also a mechanic suggested that maybe the extreme cold was wreaking havoc on the electrical components causing the issue, which disappeared when it warmed up.(This was based on the theory of "cold contracts while heat expands".)

[NavyWife424]

'97ventureowner Thanks for the suggestions. I did check all my brake lights and all was good. I also checked all my fuses and they were fine. I wondered if the colder weather we have been having here could have been affecting the ABS but as it warmed up the lights were still on.


Thank you!
Jana

[NavyWife424]

Updates, we after 4 days of tracing my vehicle for electrical problems and looking for every possible contact or ground issue The mechanic says it is my ABS Module and the cheapest he found it was $957.02 and the Relay $39.66 labor will be $128.25. They said we could disconnect the ABS module from the brakes and I can drive it around without it but I could cause damage to the system that could be costly down the road. They put the new ABS module in and cleared the codes and updated the system and test drove the car and it was working ok then on the second test drive it went back to the same problem all the lights came on and the brake pedal got hard. They say we are back to square one of diagnosing the problem. They don’t know what is happening. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[maxwedge]

Yes, get your money back and get it to someone who knows how to fix this!!

[nascars3]

look at the wheel hub assem and check the wiring if it is broken it will cause the lights to come on

['97ventureowner]

Please check the dates of the last post and avoid posting in those threads that have been inactive over 90 days.