ABS light is on

[fshotmail]

My 99' Taurus' ABS light is on. It is strange. When I drive it in the morning for the first couple of minutes, everything is alright. But once the engine warms up, the ABS is on and will not go off. It happens every day like this for the past two weeks. The brake works fine in general, although I believe ABS does not work properly (but i can't feel). Any clue? Thanks.

[DistanceGuy1]

The ABS as you know is a safety feature and is not to be ignored....which of course you are not doing...because you are on this site! When the ABS light is on this means that a problem with the anti-lock braking system circuit has been detected and the ABS system has shut off. However, conventional braking will continue to function.

If you really want to check whether or not they are working yourself drive your car [when the ABS light is on] over to a local mall/high school type place wherein there is a large parking lot. Go to an area of the lot that is not populated at all...hit the gas and then depress the brakes hard, real hard...they should pulsate, make a strange sounding noise and bring you to a quick stop without locking up.

[shorod]

Welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately, you'll almost need some pricey diagnostic equipment to troubleshoot the ABS system, unless you already have a multimeter and your issue happens to be only a bad wheel speed sensor.

You can inspect the wheel speed sensor wiring to make sure it's in good shape and securely connected, you can also check the resistance of the wheel speed sensors with a DMM to see if they are open, shorted, or within specification. You can also inspect the tone rings for missing/damaged teeth or cracks between teeth.

Beyond that, you'll need to find a shop with a scan tool that can read the ABS codes or you'll need access to an oscilloscope to monitor the pattern from the sensors to determine if a sensor is the problem. Since the light comes on after the car has been driven awhile, you'll really need to make the measurements shortly after the light comes on in case you have a sensor going open circuit as it heats up.

-Rod

[Dave_s]

ACTRON sells a scanner for about 170 for ABS. You should compare that to the price of getting the code read. Not sure which will be cheaper.

[shorod]

Originally Posted by Dave_s

ACTRON sells a scanner for about 170 for ABS. You should compare that to the price of getting the code read. Not sure which will be cheaper.

Oh, that's right. Good point, and thanks for the tip!

-Rod

[tripletdaddy]

As simple and ridiculous as this may sound, but have you looked at the brake fluid level? The Windstars are infamously, notoriously, excessively sensitive to just a whisper of insufficient fluid. I have to top mine off to just at or over the MAX line to get the light to go off. When this would happen with mine, however, it was just the ABS light that would come on. Was a real head scratcher for awhile since I thought the regular BRAKE light was supposed to come on for that. Well anyway, can't get a cheaper fix than that.