ABS Sorted

Wheels are off the GTI. The whole thing is up on axle stands whilst I investigate why the ABS warning light is on. I unplugged the looms and used a multimeter to check the resistance from each of the sensors in turn at the socket. Of course it was the last one that I tested, the near side rear, that didn’t return a reading.

When I bought the car I was told that the previous owner told me that ‘the fuse has been taken out’ which turned out to be a load of old bollocks. On investigation, both the fuses in the engine bay fuse box were present and working just fine, yet still that annoying yellow warning light was sitting there on the dash staring back at me. The car wasn’t going to pass it’s MOT with it still showing.

Started the ‘simple job’ of sitting a new part. Famous. Last. Words.

The faulty sensor may not have been dead, but the cable to it certainly was. The unit came out without too much grief, but even with the new one in place the light wouldn’t go out. Hmm, interesting. The ABS ECU on my GTI is a pain in the arse to get to, being situated under the ABS pump. It’s a battery out, air intake out job and even then requires some pretty special dexterity. I tested the sensors in turn from the ECU connector socket and had good readings back from them all showing that there were no other breaks in the cable.

The final test was cleaning up the splines on all of the wheel hubs. The Dremel came out and made a relatively quick job of cleaning off the surface rust. The front wheels were particularly bad, but once cleaned up should be good for another ten years or so. With the wheels back on and the car off the axle stands, I took it for a test drive and after about 30 seconds the warning light went off. Result.

I’m also respraying the steelies. I’m pretty pissed off to be doing it as I paid good money to get them powder coated, but they were definitely a cream colour when they came back rather than bright white. The top coat has just gone on and I’ll get them lacquered up.