ABS light not on

[mikeWalsall]

MOT is coming up on my V6 and only recently realised, the ABS check light was not coming .. and that it is now a MOT failure ..

So checked all the relevant under the dash ... and under the bonnet fuses .. all OK ..(Thanks Geoff) ..





So out with the speedo to see if it was a duff bulb ... or 'gasp' .. if any one would be unscrupulous enough to remove the bulb .. low and behold .. there are two bulbs missing ..

One for the (yes you've guessed it) the ABS and the other for the exhaust over heating ..



Even though all the other bulbs where OK as I had a box of new ones I have changed them all (and re tested) them anyway ..



Problem is .. the only spare diddy bulb holders I have do not fit .. so for today it looks like robbing the 'L' & 'S' bulbs / holders .. and re fitting the speedo panel to get mobile .. and check when when everything is plugged back in...

Just to add .. this Bongo was imported by one of the 'respected' ... 'Golden Boys' .. of the Bongo world .. so anyone into buying a Bongo check .. from anyone .. your check lights .. before they check your cash ..!!

Have I ever said I have a distrust of dealers .. who I believe see us mere mortals just as a source of income ..!!

[scanner]

Didn't you check the ABS light when you bought it?

[Simon Jones]

Mike, pm me your address and I'll pop a couple of bulb holders in the post.

[mikeWalsall]

Didn't you check the ABS light when you bought it?

I've had my Toyota nearly eight years and it was not until the new MOT laws came in that I realised the air bag light had never come on ..!!

Which is the exactly the same scenario as the ABS light on the Bongo ...

Before I replaced the dash I 'pinched' a couple of gear indication bulbs and fitted them into the ABS and overheating exhaust .. check lights ..

Sure enough after the initial bulb check .. the ABS light goes off for a couple of seconds ... then back to being permanently on ..!!

I don't know if the exhaust bulb is part of the bulb check system .. has that as not come on at all ..

[mikeWalsall]

Mike, pm me your address and I'll pop a couple of bulb holders in the post.

Thankee very much Simon .. greatly appreciated ..

I've just got to suss out if the ABS is kicking in or (most likely) a fault some where in the system ..!!

[mikeWalsall]

As mentioned my ABS light was not ... lighting .. so after investigating to find that a not very nice person had removed the bulb ..

So after reading advise on the Forum ... muti meter in hand my son and I went through various tests ..

Fuses .. relays ... wires .. connections all looked brand new and tested out fine ..

All four wheel censers well with specified parameters (1600 to 1640 ohms) ..

Took off the under bonnet heater casing to get to the pump / valve block ..



AAhh ahh .. problem .. the ABS pump was not ... pumping .. after various tests which included jumping with a live 12volt feed . it bought the pump to life ..

So then it was a matter of sussing out which wire did what ... and find the one that was not ..



Then after some hassle ... we found the simplest plug to get to .. was not fully plugged in ..!!!

... The one on the right with the Blue / Red and Red / Yellow wire .. easy to get to by the coolant tank ..



I have to say that the ABS dash light is functioning 100% OK .. BUT .. I have to say that at the moment I have not physically tested the Anti Lock Braking part ... !!

[dave_aber]

What a pleasant result. Good to see some old-fashioned fault finding. Hats off to you.

I bet the numpty who went to the trouble of removing the bulb would have a reading this, realising it would probably be quicker / easier (and more honest) to just fix the fault!

[mikeWalsall]

Yes .. even dealer are not infallible..

I reckon on another little scam they 'may' do .. when they remove to speedo to change the KPH to MPH face .. is to 'drop' the temperature gauge needle 'a little bit' .. so (for our piece of mind I am sure) the (damped) temp. always reads a little lower ..!!

[Simon Jones]

Well done Mike for getting to the bottom of it . Just an observation, you might want to get some proper convoluted trunking on the coolant alarm/leisure battery wiring as loose cabling is now an MOT failure point.

[mikeWalsall]

The wires are tie wrapped and neatly fastened away .. but I have some split / spiral corrugated cable tidy conduit that I will try ..

[steveyd]

Hi,

I had the same problem - noticed after a big skid towards an oncoming tractor in a leafy somerset lane that the ABS wasnt working.. I then recalled I'd never actually noticed an ABS light. I took a look at the back of the dash only to find a bulb had been removed, replaced it with one from the AFT warning and yes it lit..and stayed on.

Turns out my Bongo had been converted from 4wd to 2wd, and the new front hubs they had used for the conversion were not ABS ones. I replaced with a couple of front hubs with ABS rotors on from Bell Hill, wired it all in and worked a treat - now have ABS!

So if you're bulb stays on, its worth taking a look underneath.. (though testing the resistance at the ECU multiplug will tell you if you have an open circuit without getting grubby underneath).

cheers,

Steve

[mikeWalsall]

We printed out the diagnostic plug schematic from the Russian site .. but could not accurately suss out the pins, so we manually split the four sensor connections and tested them individually ..

[mikeWalsall]

The wires are tie wrapped and neatly fastened away .. but I have some split / spiral corrugated cable tidy conduit that I will try ..

MOT looming so I neatened up the coolant alarm / leisure battery wires today ...



... with computer cable tidy trunking ..



A big benefit of having to remove the plastic heater housing, to get at the ABS leckies .. was the amount of dried 'mud' that I cleaned away from the fan and in particular the matrix which was partially covered with some plastic film that had gone blown in ..

It was amazing the difference that cleaning out fifteen years of dust as made, both to the quiet running of the fan, and the extra air flow through the matrix ..