Can anyone help me out with a ABS problem. Intermittantly the light keeps coming on the idiot cluster. The brakes are good and solid except just before the car stops. Like pulling up to a junction the brakes are good then just when I dip the clutch to stop I can feel the ABS working (juddering feel). Then I can hear a hissing sound from under the bonnet. I also am getting alot of squeeking from the brake pads at the moment. Anyone know what it is.
Have you bled the ABS pump?
Nope. How do I do that then?
Quote from: TiddlesRX7;689633Nope. How do I do that then?
There are 2 bleed screws on the top of the ABS unit, its the last bleeding point in the run to do, just don\'t look over it when its being bled or press the pedel loads as you get a HUGE fountain of fluid shooting straight up lol
My ABS is being spesh as well, its not arming anymore, so it might be a sensor that has been caked in brake dust, try the bleeding first though :)
So its just a case of cracking the bleed screws untill I get fluid. No pedal pumping before hand or anything? Cheers Mitch
Quote from: TiddlesRX7;689752So its just a case of cracking the bleed screws untill I get fluid. No pedal pumping before hand or anything? Cheers Mitch
You need to bleed it as if it was a 5th caliper :)
Hmm Ok. I\'ll give it a whirl tomorrow.
ahhhhhhhhhhh this post !!!!!!!!!! LOL ( private joke between me and ade - no wonder i couldnt find it - thought you might have updated it )
if your abs is working ( in a fashion ) then i dont think the ECU is at fault - if the ecu is dead then the ABS light stays on all the time - and the ABS doesnt work at all
so could be the pump is on the way out ( just ask mazda for a quote - they are about £1500+vat !! )
im not sure if you can flip the seals in the ABS if you use an assisted bleeding tool - so might be worth a research on that if you can
but i have a complete abs pump in the garage if you believe yours is on the way out ;)
and i know this sounds really really silly - how is the fluid in the car ( old , new , full , low ) and do all the pads have a load of life left in them ?
or if the pads are fine - what are the dics like - they got loads of meat still on them ?
Pads are well not the best shall we say. Disc\'s I think are ok but will be checking over the weekend. I have some trackday/fast road pads on order with MRP so hopefully that\'ll help. It would be nice if it is just pads. The squeeking is really bad now and annoying!
Bleeding the ABS pump hasn\'t helped.
Before my car was taken off the road my abs was suffering from the same sysmtoms as yours.
As im putting braded lines on my car im taking the abs out allntogether now.Ive heard its a fairly simple removal though.
So ill have a pump up for sale.
you can borrow my pump if need be mate - or as adam suggests - just get shut of it completly ;)
I might remove my ABS as well, all it seems to do is randomly fix itself - like this morning for about 10 minutes and then fail, it also removes quite a bit of skin from my knuckles when I am trying to get to my coolant leak lol I think I might remove the ABS pump to make room for...something else that is shiny maybe? :D
Oil catch can?? I removed my abs pump today along with all the lines along the firewall ready to have some new lines made up.
I assume you just buy a t piece and join the front brakes together and then to the master cyclinder, then run a new line from the master cylinder to the rear brakes??
please correct me if im wrong?
when i removed ABS i just bought the FC non-ABS brakelines at our local dealer.
but you need to T the front brakes together to work with the stock ABS master cylinder.
yeah i see there is only two ports in the master cylinder on mine so ill get a local garage/mate to make some lines up and see what it feels like when its done.
With regards to mot will i have to remove the ecu,idiot lights, and all sensors to get through??
well, i really like the feel of it and less things that can cause problems...
i must say, that it sometimes takes a bit of skill if you combine 300hp, a wet road, a big brake kit and no ABS :lol:
i dont know how strict the MOT is in the UK, since i am in Holland.
i left the sensors in there, now i use them for my Racelogic Traction control system.
if you just take out the ECU with harness completely, the idiot lights wont even go on ;)
okay goodo,like you say its one less thing to go wrong and when it was running it used to pull the car all over the road and nearlly put me in the armco so im all for junking it.
Well I took the car out lastnight. It seemed better. Still not quite right but it wasn\'t doing it as much. Maybe I do just have air in the system some how. Seems odd though since its been a year since I last changed the fluid. Not really sure how air got in the system. Gonna take the wheels off today and check the callipers, pads and breeak lines for clues.
Does anyone know if the idiot light would come on if the pads are low?
only if you have the sensors there which I dont think many did,if at all. The light will come on for low fluid though.
Do you have the workshop manual? it has an excellent manual for brakes. I\'ll post here if its small but otherwise send me an email and I will send you it that way.
Its nearly 3MB so just email me if you need it.
Right a bit of an update on this. The problem is still there. Although not as bad. I have changed pads for some fast road/track pads (Racing Brake). I\'ve had every calliper off and they are ok. I\'ve cleaned the toothed pick up rings with a wire brush. The fronts were fine but the rears were a bit corroded. I also checked the clearances of the sensors-toothed pick up wheel. They were all within tollerance. Three of them were 0.4mm and the drivers side rear was 0.7mm. I\'ve also been through the ABS ECU as per FSM and it checked out ok. So Im thinking its a dodgy sensor maybe.
Now the problem I have is my track day on next week. I really need to sort this asap. Whats the best line to take guys? Do I remove the ABS all together or try and fix it when I still don\'t know 100% what the problem is? How easy is it to remove the ABS and what is needed to be removed for MOT as that is due in 3 weeks too!
HELP!
do you think a new ABS ECU would sort it out - or have you tried that ?
I have checked it. I sent you a msg the other day about that one I gave you a while back.
as soon as mine gets to carls ill have a working pump and ecu if any one wants it . im removing mine for a hydrobrake . had my rex out in the snow and the abs was going mental so i know it works lol
yeah i got it and took it to the meet on sunday :(
have you tried a different ECU though ?
i have the full ABS pump in the garage if you need to test yours
Cheers Stu + Batman I may take one of you up on the offer. im thinking though if I can\'t fix it for cheap then I may just remove it altogether. Pete has sugested just pulling the fuse for now and see if the problem goes away. I\'ll try it over the weekend. If its ok I\'ll track day the car like that and then sort it out afterwards.
Thanks.
Oh Stu no I haven\'t tried another ECU. Thats why I wanted to make the meet so bad.
ahhhhhhhhhh , i thought you had tried an other one
just a shame you arent like 30 mins away - you could have bobbed down and we could have had a play
Im only an hour away bud;)
I was at a mates last night and when doing a 3 point turn it happened again. So parked it on a hill facing up the hill and bled the ABS unit again. Seemed to get a good spurt of air out of one of the nipples. So hopefully it was just a little airlocked. Gonna run it over the weekend and see what happens.
any news mate ?
Well no not really. After the last bleed it seemed alright again. Atleast for a little while then it did it again (not as bad though). So I took the ABS fuse out and have been driving like that since yesterday. Been off work today to prep the car for Cadwell on Wednesday. So been running around town in it and it seems ok without the ABS fuse for now.
Think I\'ll try bleeding it again when I get to Cadwell and see what happens.
humm , wonder if air is getting into it somewhere - so even by bleeding it - it comes back over time
out of interest - when you FIRST start the car , once you hit 4-5mph in first - can you hear the system do the self test / pressurize thingy ?
Yep its normal that way. It does it when the problem happens too. My first thoughts were its getting air in somehow but I\'ve been right through the breking system and couldn\'t find any leaks. Its got me stumped.
Hi Tiddles
your problem sounds similar to a common rover problem i came accross
a couple of weeks ago when you cleaned the toothed rings did you make sure they werent cracked and poss loose, on the rover they corrode and crack and cause the kind of problem you describe
I couldn\'t see any cracks but I wasn\'t really looking for them. More just the state of the teeth really. If it was a small crack I may have missed it. Think when I get chance Im gonna have to go over the whole system again or junk it altoether. Who really needs ABS anyway!