Originally posted by jimmiejoe
How about an intermittant ABS light? Seems to only come on when I have to pass a retard on the interstate (the ones that speed up and slow down constantly), and usually when I have to hit 80+ to pass them before they get me killed.... or I kill them for being stupid.
Edit: It will typically stay on until the car is shut off. Upon restart it is fine again.
First of all what kind of car do you have? I know certain GM makes have problems with the ABS ground getting dirty. If I was a gambling man I would say that it is your ABS wheel speed sensor. My guess is it has some kind of electrical fault, what I would do is pull it out and take an Ohms meter to it to measure its resistance. If it looks dirty you can clean it, and many times that will fix it.
BUT before you do that do the simple things FIRST. Always keep it simple. Check your master cylinder (the plastic container that holds the brake fluid). I do not think this is the issue but check it anyways. If the fluid is looking brown, yucky, and goopy it is time to change it, or if it is low top it off. If you change the fluid make sure to bleed the brake lines. Sometimes the float in the master cylinder sticks, just press it down with your finger (the plastic thing on the bottom of the lid). Disconnect the master cylinders wires when the light comes on just to see if the ABS light turns off. This will the final shit test for the master cylinder, if the ABS doesn't go off move to the speed sensor.
Take off your wheels, on the axle hub you should see a gear like thing with teeth. That is called the tone ring. The wheel speed sensor is a part that is about as big as your small toe. It reads the teeth on the tone read at speeds and that is how it calculates the speed at which your wheels are rotating. Take it out, clean it, and if you can test the resistance, usually a RadioShack can do this for you.
Obviously check the condition of your tone ring and brake pads, you may need to take off the calipers to get to the sensors.
