# My ABS is confused and so am I.



## nixomose (Apr 15, 2002)

Living in the north east, US, land of the recent lots-of-snow, I had the misfortune of smashing my GTI into a large chunk of ice kicked up by the guy in front of me at about 70mph.
Lucky me the chunk of ice missed the car and just creamed my front left wheel.
The first thing I noticed was that the tire was flat. When I pulled over and stopped and got out to assess the damage, I realized a) my abs light was on (oh no, this can't be good) and b) the door doesn't open as cleanly as it used to. it sticks a little. Whether or not I bent the whole car is up for debate, but that's not my question at the moment.

I should have taken a picture of the sorry state of the wheel. Tire was flat, wheel rim has big bend in it. Wheel is sitting very low in wheel well, and is no longer facing the same direction as the right wheel. 
Well, not driving this puppy home.

This is a 1999.5 VR6. Never had any drivetrain related problems, the car was as good as new. But this seems to be the end of that.

So I got it towed to a guy who's good at making it go, and go it does. Got it back today. He told me I bent just about everything related to suspension. Lower control arm, strut, spindle, the works.
On the plus side, he said he'll just get the entire suspension assembly from a junk yard and plunk it all in in one piece. and so he did, and drive straight and true my GTI does. And it's factory parts. Better than new aftermarket parts I figure.

Anyway all is well (except for that whole door thing) and the ABS light is on.
Then I started noticing this: when I start the car and start driving forward, the abs clamps down on the front left wheel (the one in question here). I know it's the abs on that wheel, because it pulls to the left, pulses in a funny but regular pattern regardless of speed, and stops immediately when I touch the brake the slightest bit.

It does this three times, then I guess it gives up and disables the ABS. The ABS light is on the whole time. I have lots of snow and ice around on which to test out the ABS, and it's not working.

If it gets annoying, I'll just pull the fuse, but for now I need to dig out my code reader and see what the computer tells me. (this is going to be a problem because I packed everything as I'm planning to move soon) But assuming it tells me the abs sensor on the front left wheel is broken: how hard a repair is this?
Is it worth doing? Or should I just live with no ABS? It worked grandly for 11+ years, and I plan on keeping this car forever.
I haven't taken the wheel off yet (it's still cold and nasty outside) but from what I remember there's a wire that plugs into something mounted on the spindle, and the other end of the wire goes off into never never land.

Does this sound like my problem? Could it be that simple? Is it hard to do? And most importantly, is there something that has to be calibrated after a sensor is replaced?
I was going to replace the ABS sensor on my 2002 subaru wrx and the shop told me I needed their computer to calibrate it after I installed it. Never heard of that before or since. Is there some magic required on my GTI?

Thanks all for your help.

Also, while I'm here. I have to replace the wheel, currently riding on the spare. Is this a real wheel?
http://www.4130-products.com/wheels/Montreal-I.html

That's the wheel that was on the car but I'm wondering if this is a real alloy wheel or some iron monstrosity that was painted silver. These wheels don't seem to be too popular, I don't see many of them on the road. For $139 it sound too good to be true, so I'm guessing it is.

I imagine I broke the A/C too, but I won't find out about that until spring.

Thanks again.


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## supermega1 (Oct 27, 2006)

I'd recommend starting with a vag com scan and then going from there but it could be
the sensor. It is a magnet and will collect any ferrous metal as debris on the sensor. I was having issues with mine where the ABS would randomly activate pop the ABS light and then have no problem after that.

Also check the ABS ring.
Looks like this kinda










behind the caliper, see if for some reason there is debris or one of the slots is broken.

Start there see if that solves your issues before you have to go buy parts.


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

There should be no calibration for ABS sensors, the modulator will do a inital check at some point every time the vehicle is started and reevaluate your sensor's condition. In your subaru's condition, perhaps the ECU just waned the code to be properly cleared :screwy:

Seems like the sensor is broken or the sensor's pick up (encoder ring, or tone ring, etc.)
Like the ^^^ postr, I would check the pick up first, although, I do find it strange that if he replaced an entire corner assembly from a junk yard vehicle that there would be a problem...... so perhaps the sensor. Never the less, it should be one of those two :thumbup:

(or it could be another wheel sensor by coincidence)


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## nixomose (Apr 15, 2002)

*my abs*

very cool info, thanks a lot. I'll check this out as soon as it gets above freezing outside. 

Glad to know the wheel part of the abs system is simple to work on.

The ABS light went on as soon as I hit the block of ice so I imagine I actually broke something, but now I know what to check out.

Thanks again.


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## nixomose (Apr 15, 2002)

*Found my obdii reader...*

It says this:

00283 P1711 ABS Wheel Speed Signal #1 (Left Front) - Range/Performance - G47

Ooooooookay. Any idea what that means?

I took a look at the abs ring, and it looks fine.

Then I noticed something so right in front of my face I had missed it...










A slightly more in focus shot:









So I'm guessing that's my problem. Whatever I hit must have come up and taken a big bite out of the abs wire. Although the insulation is ripped away, the wire inside (which seems to be many threads of one wire) is still intact.

I didn't have time to try and solder it up or anything before it snowed again.

So anybody know anything about this? It's a very heavy duty wire, thick rubber surrounding thick insulation surrounding thick many stranded wire.

If there's a second wire in that sheathing I didn't see it. Should I replace the whole wire? Probably includes the sensor at the wheel. Also it goes into the wheel well and dissapears. How much of the car do I have to take apart to replace this abs sensor cable?


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

There are two wires, you can cut them and splice them back together.


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## nixomose (Apr 15, 2002)

*rockin*

Good to know, splice I will. Thanks a lot.


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## nixomose (Apr 15, 2002)

*well that worked out very well*

I finally had a chance to poke around again. that sheathing is tough stuff, but I got enough of it off that I could see the two wires. 
I wrapped them in an immense amount of electrical tape, reset all the codes, went for a drive on the snow, and VOILA! Working ABS. 
Thanks everybody.


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