The truck is a 97 3.9 fwd. The abs light and brake warning light are both on but everything seems to be fine. I read about this in other threads and the general advice was replace the rear diff speed sensor, so I did. The abs and brake warning lights are still on and when you push down the parking brake the brake light gets brighter. Does anyone know what the problem is?

 

Hi Baron, welcome to the forum.

Check the brakes first. The light getting brighter when you press the parking brake is probably because it's a mechanical switch illuminating the bulb and not the ABS fault.

To save yourself a lot of money and time get the code read. Most cheap scanners can't read ABS codes. A good brake shop or dealer can. It will give you the exact code.

If you have 4 wheel ABS there are two more speed sensors at the front wheel.

 

It can be an indicator of low brake fluid on some vehicles.

 

Could also be a blown fuse for the ABS.

 

I only have two wheel abs and I just replaced the brake lines for the rear brakes, the brake fluid level is fine. I will have the codes read by a shop, hopefully that will let me know whats wrong. Thanks for the advice.

 

Ok so back to this rather frustrating issue. I have the vehicle rescanned on top of a cylinder 3 and 5 misfire.......the scan also came back a showed a left wheel solenoid issue.

There were no error codes in the vehicle at all. When I drove i to the shop that was 15 miles away......the abs/brake light popped off for about 20 seconds and then came back on.

So are the left and right front wheel sensors the issue or is it in the main ABS system.brain.

Thanks again for all the help.

HK

 

If the ABS/Brake lights are coming on, there should be codes. Does you scanner read ABS codes? (on most, you have to specify you want to talk to the ABS....)

 

The solenoid is faulting, not a wheel sensor. That should be the fix. At the ABS module.

 

What I have decided to do at this point is to do the fron left and right sensors......then the ABS solenoid module. The baffling thing is that there are no codes but the lights remain lit.

I do wonder with the light turning of and on twice now.......that the front ABS sensors may be dirty.

If it is truly the solenoid module.....am I correct in thinking that it needs to be programmed. Should leave that up to a shop correct?

HK

 

The sensors are just wheel speed sensors. If they aren't completely covered in mud they will be fine. They just use a magnet to read the teeth on the tone wheel. I believe they do get weaker with age so it might not be an awful idea to swap them regardless.