my rear abs sensor has given up on my 1997 legacy. I am many hours from home in a town I have no desire to see ever again (sorry Cranbrook).

 

I really don't want to deal with the subtleties of ABS here. Car does some pretty alarming clunking and scraping so driving home as is isn't really an option.

 

 

Can I just pull the plug on the ABS pump and get on with my life for the time being?

 

 

I'm getting codes 26, 42 & 44.

You can definitely pull the ABS fuses - (there are 2 on my '02, not sure how many on the previous gen).

 

I'm sure someone else will chime in, I am not very familiar with the ABS workings and these codes:

 

42 - Source voltage is abnormal
44 - A combination of AT control abnormal

 

Clunking and scraping sounds a bit more serious than an ABS malfunction though, have you taken a look under the car?

Going to have a closer look tomorrow am. Too hot to wrench here by 11am. 30 degrees Celsius and up day after day.

 

Just changed rear struts. May have damaged sensor then.

 

Brakes mostly work fine but intermittently scary. Bumps and tight turning bring out the worst in them.

 

Fuse box under hood crypticly labelled. No mention of ABS.

 

Wreckers here don't have much to help. Only older legacies have no ABS.

ABS fuses I believe are only under the dash. Look for #18 (10A - cruise & abs control) and #19 (20A - abs solenoid).

 

Scary brakes? That's no good. Do you think it's just the ABS kicking on constantly? The brakes should work totally fine with ABS disabled. Possibly another strut change related issue there?

 

Definitely double check those rear struts and fasteners.

Possible the ABS light and codes are just a side effect of some greater snafu. No visible issues without taking things apart.

 

Didn't put a wrench to any rear brake components to install struts. Except for unclipping brake line from strut of course. Only shabbiness on my part was zap strapping line to bracket because clip didn't fit properly on after market strut. Don't really see this as a likely suspect.

Unplug the module itself from under the hood. Mine has been unplugged for 2 years. The only problem i am having with it nowadays is the module itself is beginning to leak.

Maybe something came loose in the drum and whacked the sensor.

Maybe something came loose in the drum and whacked the sensor.

 

yeah, or some kinda road debris is on the sensor and scraping?

 

Possible the ABS light and codes are just a side effect of some greater snafu. No visible issues without taking things apart.

 

the fuse will disable the ABS system, but it will not cure any clanking or scraping.

 

you need to find the cause of the noise.

the fuse will disable the ABS system, but it will not cure any clanking or scraping.

 

you need to find the cause of the noise.

 

 

^^^ what he said - a severely broken wheel bearing might allow enough movement to cause ABS issues I'd guess. Dunno what a loose axle nut back there could lead too.

 

somebody needs to look at that stuff.

 

38C here - get out there and look wimp!

 

lol!

Edited July 23, 201312 yr by 1 Lucky Texan

> Maybe something came loose in the drum and whacked the sensor.

 

That's exactly what happened.

 

Not sure exactly what failed first, but when I popped off the rotor, all sorts of interesting things came pouring out. About half of the tone wheel has been turned into little chunks and the e-brake shoe was more or less floating around freely in a few different pieces.

 

Why things would have blown apart at just that moment is still a bit of a mystery to me, since as mentioned earlier, I hadn't been messing with the brakes at all and hadn't previously had any issues there.

 

It would seem that at one scenario that can lead to the ambiguous codes 42 and 44 is to have the tone wheel blow apart inside the drum.

 

Car seems perfectly drivable for now. I'll deal with all that misery when I get home.

 

Btw, I've been doing this work outside a tent in the woods, so every time I need a new tool, it's an hour and a half walk each way. I've just finished up a couple of months work in the bush and figured the campsite was as good a place as anywhere to get my car up to snuff before winter hit. (It's almost impossible to find any where to work on a car in Vancouver - a whole town built without driveways or garages). I've already dealt with all the usual suspects in the front end - bearings, ball joints, CV joints - but it looks like the rear end may still need a bit of attention before I start asking this thing to get me to the ski hill all winter.

 

Thanks for all the insightful help. And patience with my rather limited grasp of what sorts of problems ABS can actually cause.

Edited July 23, 201312 yr by splazo

Why things would have blown apart at just that moment is still a bit of a mystery to me, since as mentioned earlier, I hadn't been messing with the brakes at all and hadn't previously had any issues there.

 

 

Haven't you heard of Murphy's Law?

 

Joking aside, that's exactly why it broke. It was old, and you've probably never serviced it. The liner of the brake shoe probably fell off and jammed everything else up. Or the pins that hold the shoes rusted and broke. Much more common than you probably think.

Either way, the chunks of brake shoe and the tone ring cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Something has to give, and the tone ring and sensor took the brunt.