ABS light staying on

[Mark Halligan]

After tooling about tonight on a mapping session with Mihnea and Greg onboard, the ABS light has come on and stayed on after a few bouts of heavy braking. I have an early ABY, and unfortunately the ABS can not be fault diagnosed with VAGCOM, which is a bit of a p!sser.
Does anyone have any ideas what it could be, or of a quick way of finding out without a long drawn out process of elimination?

Cheers,

Mark.

[audiman]

Nightmare, could be all manner of things mate. There is a way of getting the codes out of it. Does it flash or anything?? When first turning on the ignition???

[Mark Halligan]

Nightmare, could be all manner of things mate. There is a way of getting the codes out of it. Does it flash or anything?? When first turning on the ignition???

Dunno, I think it just comes on and stays there, I'll have to check tomorrow.

[audiman]

I have some info for the early ABS systems at work, but its limited. Cant beleive yours is using the older system on the ABY. Does yours have the ABS off switch in the dash?

[Mark Halligan]

I have some info for the early ABS systems at work, but its limited. Cant beleive yours is using the older system on the ABY. Does yours have the ABS off switch in the dash?

Nope, no switch on the dash ,but we tried VAGCOM and it doesnt work, I think Mihnea said that there was a problem with 1993 cars and VAGCOM. The only thing I can think of is maybe its a sensor on on of the wheels gone???
I definately put a lot of heat into the brakes tonight thats for sure.

[audiman]

Maybe, would need to test them all with an ohm meter. Get at the connectors under the seats and under the bonnet and measure the resistance betweent the two pins of the sensors. They should be about 1k ohms. Let me know the results.

[Mark Halligan]

Maybe, would need to test them all with an ohm meter. Get at the connectors under the seats and under the bonnet and measure the resistance betweent the two pins of the sensors. They should be about 1k ohms. Let me know the results.

Will do

[newsh]

Could be a build up of muck on the sensors, they read the teeth on the axle and if theres a bit of corrosion it can misread.

[S2central.net]

AFAIK - If there is no ABS cancel switch on the dash, then you have the 'type 2' ABS system which should talk to VAG-COM just fine. I've done it often. The 'type 1' ABS fitted to the 3Bs needs a special test kit from VAG that checks integrity of loom to sensors etc. I'm not aware of any other ABS system on the S2, but I notice there may be a grey area here as the family album states the 'type 2' ABS only came into production from MY94 and you have a MY93 car - so just maybe you have the latest 'type 1' system that has the ABS cancel switch deleted. Bummer as you will need the VAG1710 tester (or a clone) to do any serious diagnostics.

Check all your fuses and the security of relays under the ABS cover. Actually you might find the fault will clear if you reset the ABS controller - disconnect and reconnect the loom to the controller under the rear seat - ignition off obviously.

The bursts of heat may have cooked a wheel speed sensor if it was on the way out. As Tom says - a quick check with a DVM should let you compare all four of those.

Try this link for info and background - http://www.s2central.net/abs_01.html

Hows the car running now BTW ?


Paul

[S2central.net]

Also - don't forget on the ABS systems which do talk to VAG-COM - dialog only works at speeds lower than 20km/h - for safety reasons.

Paul

[S2central.net]

Finally - check Fuse 31 ...

[porkkis]

I was about to say that about the fuse or perhaps could be some wire damage? Too low voltage will turn the abs off.

[Mark Halligan]

Thanks for the info fellas

Cheers,

Mark.

[loz]

I seem to remember getting this very fault in my last car a 3b coupe - there was an additional in line fuse sited behind the trim beneath the dash around the relay bank region i think - replacement cured the problem

After tooling about tonight on a mapping session with Mihnea and Greg onboard, the ABS light has come on and stayed on after a few bouts of heavy braking. I have an early ABY, and unfortunately the ABS can not be fault diagnosed with VAGCOM, which is a bit of a p!sser.
Does anyone have any ideas what it could be, or of a quick way of finding out without a long drawn out process of elimination?

Cheers,

Mark.

[Mark Halligan]

Finally - check Fuse 31 ...

It was this, thanks again, I wish all things were this easy to fix.

Mark.