ABS and Speedo Scaryness

[pshuttle]

Hi guys and girls,

I was driving to work this morning on incredibly dirty and wet roads when I noticed that my ABS warning light had come on. This irritated me with thoughts of "what now?" but then I realised that the speedo was not working either!

I pulled over and restarted the engine but it made no difference. However, having left it a few minutes after arriving at work, the speedo is working again and there is no ABS warning.

What could it be? At luncthime I am going to make sure that the plenum drains are clear under the bonnet and check to make sure that the ECU is not underwater (eeek!).

Failing that, any ideas?

Pete

PS Last Friday I ended up nearly having to stop my car half way through knee deep water down a country lane. As it happens Rovey did not let me down and I managed to make it through 200 meters of what looked like a lake (could not see the road at all). Ended up in that situation after travelling round a blind bend and then not wanting to stop the car and reverse in case I stalled!

Perhaps this has not done the car any favours? However, I did travel to Worcester and back this weekend with no issues....

[Keith]

It means the abs sensor that also provides speedo input signal stopped sending for some reason, dodgy cable, faulty sensor etc

I think it is the nearside front but don't quote me
If you search I think we have it listed which wheel sensor does what somewhere on the forum

[pshuttle]

Thanks Keith. A quick search through the forums indicates that it is most probably the ABS sensor as you suggested.

If the worst comes to the worst, then they are only 30 quid on ebay.

Cheers,

Pete

[JohnDotCom]

Front RHS ABS Sensor feeds the speedo (and affects the Fuel Gauge),
the front LHS ABS Sensor feeds the cruise control.
It is possible to set the cruise control even if the RHS ABS sensor/cable is faulty.

Taken from a Earlier post.

Now See Rincewinds Response Below!

[Rincewind]

Actually, all 4 wheel speed sensors contribute to the speedo working. All 4 wheels have to be turning in order to get a speed display.

When we did emissions testing with the cars, the rears are strapped down and chocked so only the fronts are turning. The speedo doesn't work and the ABS warning light comes on because it cant' work out why 2 out of 4 wheels are turning so it can't processs the initial ABS check up to 15km/h (hence the little "kick" you can sometimes here as you pull away after you've started the engine.) The various other sensors then contribute to other components like CC for example.

If one of the sensors has gone down and it would be any of them, you will get an ABS warning lamp and no speed displayed or at worse a very inaccurate reading.

Nic

[JohnDotCom]

Thanks for the Full Correct Response Nic.