FAQ: Anti-Lock Brakes and/or Traction Control Light/Lamp On

Hey all, question about the traction control light. Mine comes on in my 95 SC after a few minutes of driving.

I can't toggle it on and off with the traction button either. Not sure what's going on. Any ideas of what that could be?

Ideas:

- bad wiring at the hubs

- one or more bad hubs

Coroding inners .... ahhhh ... i remember it well!

I did a little write-up/thread on my rotten ABS modulator!.. it can be found here:-

https://rivperformance.editboard.com/t6870-abs-pump-and-solenoid-pack-replacement

have you had the codes read?

NIgel

Oh and the question of ... cant turn off the traction control lamp off? i cant turn mine off. I know my problem is a problem in the ECU (replacement removes fault) i just took the lamp out of the dash and remember to not put your foot down hard during take off!

Nigel

And remember not to put your foot down too hard during a hard stop, either!

stopping is no problem the ABS appears to work fully ... trust me i know!.. its just pulling away on gravel or snow...

RidzRiv wrote:

Good point, if the rotors were warped they would vibrate regardless of the light being on or not.

Warped rotors normally are felt under braking... they feel like a wheel is out of balance.

Maybe so, but if your traction/ABS lamp is disconnected, how will you know if the ABS system does fail?

Someday when you need it most, it might not be there; then you could be in a pickle.

The traction lamp and ABS fail lamp are two different lamps i think?

I normally drive without the ABS comming on! and NEVER rely on it!

Ok, you could be right on that. Next time you start the car, it should illuminate the ABS lamp for a few seconds to test. Then you'll know!

Yeah, I just had all my brake lines replaced due to corrosion so I think I'll take a look at those speed sensors. I have no doubts that everything that can possibly be effed on this car due to corrosion is going to be an issue. The underside of the car got assaulted by the winter salting.

You can scrape off the loose rut and then paint with oxygen scavenging paint like POR-15. Then in winter when temp peeks above freezing, go to a coin op car wash and rinse off the chassis.

Yeah, I've heard good things about POR-15, from the Jeep guys - minus the fact that stains everything it touches forever. LOL

I've been hearing about these cars that the grounds can be bad. I figure I need to find where those are and then after repairing those I should probably do that POR treatment.

sniperdude wrote:

Yeah, I've heard good things about POR-15, from the Jeep guys - minus the fact that stains everything it touches forever. LOL

I've been hearing about these cars that the grounds can be bad. I figure I need to find where those are and then after repairing those I should probably do that POR treatment.

True on the staining -- just keep it off the body exterior panels, one way to assure that is run the car up on ramps then jack up the other end on stands... more room to patch and paint the underside and you don't have to put your hands on the outside finish at all.

As for the grounds a factory manual shows them all but IIRC start with the one at the battery, under the rear seat, then clean up the one on the passenger side frame rail in the engine compartment, the one under the ignition module, the one on the firewall, and if you can get to it I think there's one on the drivers side kick panel. The rest of you reading this, what other ones to check??

my traction control and ABS lamp comes on here and there and when i loose traction or just sitting still it will randomly make a winning noise, and my SES light is NOT on, does anybody know whats going on? she costing me money i don't have to drive. 200 miles= 1tank!

Usually the trac/ABS light relates to a bad wheel speed sensor, but there is no way to be sure if that's the problem without someone plugging in an ABS code reader. Most code readers will NOT read ABS codes.

I paid a local shop $30 to read my ABS codes after explaining I was a DIYer.

However, a bad WSS will not cause the bad milage you describe. You could have a different issue causing the bad milage.How is it running otherwise? When is the last time you replaced plugs and wires?

she runs great, by driving you can't tell something wrong, probably 1000 miles ago on the spark plugs and wire, each pay check I'm going to do a lil bit of everything until she running properly, i thought i would be modding by now but every time i fix it something else happens

crstump wrote:

my traction control and ABS lamp comes on here and there and when i loose traction or just sitting still it will randomly make a winning noise, and my SES light is NOT on, does anybody know whats going on? she costing me money i don't have to drive. 200 miles= 1tank!

Your traction control lamp and ABS lamp come on when certain conditions are met.

if you are driving mostly around a city (frequent stops, no long cruises) the Riv gets LOW gas mileage, and 14 MPG sounds plausible for stop-and-go driving.

if you are driving such that you lose traction in city stop-and-go driving, you may be driving too hard (again explaining the low MPG). Driving too hard = accelerating rapidly in a city driving situation, past the city speed limit (25 - 35 mph usually) on streets where the car will likely have to come to a stop again in a block or three in order to obey a traffic sign or turn.

even though your SES light is not on you should take the car to a place that will read the codes and check for stored codes. . Find out what the codes are and then clear them out.

costing you money you don't have is a problem; if it looks good and can be sold you may want to consider that -- the Riv is now about a 20 year old luxury car, it is not going to get any cheaper to drive.

So let's start here:

Pay attention as you drive in order to notice how fast you are going, whether you are accelerating or decelerating, and what's the weather (wet, dry, what have you) when the ABS light comes on next.

Post that. We'll take it from there.

Albertj

i would start with a cold air intake i got mine for $40 at auto zone and it works the same as one that is $100 or more
i got the filter and the tube $20 each i also have on on my truck as you can see [img][/img]
sorry its so small but that tube is in side the intaketube so your not sucking in too much air [img][/img] over all it rose my mpg by 3 or more it just depends on how you drive and it really makes the s/c sound amazing!!! this mod was worth it i would say and you spend little money

you are right about the stopping and going a lot, but the light comes on randomly, dry, wet or just sitting still. and when i first bought the car i had same driving habits as i do now and i was getting 21mpg. and albertj, I'm going to try very, very hard to keep maintaing this car, id hate to get rid of her so soon, iv only had it for 7000 miles and its costed me around 1500-2000 dollars, plus the 500 i spent buying but I'm not complaining about that.

back in BLACK wrote:

i would start with a cold air intake i got mine for $40 at auto zone and it works the same as one that is $100 or more
i got the filter and the tube $20 each i also have on on my truck as you can see [img][/img]
sorry its so small but that tube is in side the intaketube so your not sucking in too much air [img][/img] over all it rose my mpg by 3 or more it just depends on how you drive and it really makes the s/c sound amazing!!! this mod was worth it i would say and you spend little money

thinking about it -- how will this help the mileage? Please explain. Also, "the sound" is not everyone's cup of tea.

that said, a dirty air filter will cost you some MPG and it's not a waste of time to check it and replace if dirty. Hold it up to the light and look thru it, see if dirt is trapped in the folds, if so consider replacing it or at least smacking the loose dust out of it before you reinstall.

crstump wrote:

you are right about the stopping and going a lot, but the light comes on randomly, dry, wet or just sitting still. and when i first bought the car i had same driving habits as i do now and i was getting 21mpg. and albertj, I'm going to try very, very hard to keep maintaing this car, id hate to get rid of her so soon, iv only had it for 7000 miles and its costed me around 1500-2000 dollars, plus the 500 i spent buying but I'm not complaining about that.

We will start with the light randomly. When those lights are intermittent it's usually a bad wire to a wheel sensor and sometimes a bad wheel sensor. Check the wires from the wheel sensors, they are behind the brake backing plate on each wheel. You can have a dealer or mechanic read the codes with a Tech II scanner or you can visually inspect. The scanner will tell you which sensor's gone bad. If no scanner, it's easier with the wheels off or on a lift, you look at the connector and wires for the ABS tone wheels that are at each axle. You are looking for corroded, damaged or missing connectors, broken or damaged wire, and wires that have broken inside the insulation.

If you do not turn up anything in the visiual inspection you must then go to a GM dealer, or an independent garage, which has the ability to scan for brake system codes. Most likely they will find that one or more of your wheel sensors is bad.

To fix, you have to replace the bearing assembly. If you have a dealer or shop do this it will co$t a lot. more than if you do it yourself. $1,000/bearing is not unheard of, $200 or so for the bearing and the rest for the installation. You can do the job yourself (instructions are on this site, use the SEARCH function) for under $150/bearing. DO NOT USE NO-BRAND BEARINGS, they burn out fast. Get a Timken, SKF, ACDelco, or other branded bearing and be sure to use a reputable supplier like rockauto.com, a local NAPA, etc. so you don't get a counterfeit bearing.

As for the costs of all this - I feel for you but I also feel obliged to mention that the Riv, as is the case for other old luxury cars, will be relatively costly to maintain. The reason you could buy it for $500 is probably that the previous owner found out what it would cost for a mechanic to fix what's wrong and decided to dump the car. For the wheel bearing repair - if you fix this and if you clean up and weather-proof the connectors at the wheels, you may not have to do this repair ever again. List members have reported getting more than 100,000 miles out of wheel bearings. As for me, the only time I've had to even replace a branded wheel bearing is if the ABS sensor broke. For the no-brand ones, I tried a pair of those on the front once, they burned out in highway driving almost immediately.

Oh one other thing - a reasonable way to cheap out on this repair is to get wheel bearings from a junkyard/auto recyclers. The bearings used on the Riv were fitted to a lot of GM cars like the minivans, Aztek/Rendezvous SUVs, and the midsize/fullsize FWD sedans. Junkyards won't want that much for them and the better yards--well, they are usually able to spot recently installed wheel bearings and those are most likely the ones they'll see first in order to avoid comebacks. If you are having an independent mechanic do this repair for you ask him or her to check price and availability for used wheel bearings.

First we'll fix the brakes then we'll fix the MPG issue.

ok, next day off i will inspect for bad wires, wheel speed sensors ect... thanks for the tips, i will keep you guys posted on whats going on.

Another thing that would cause bad mpg is a dragging brake caliper. We had a lot of issues with reman rear calipers getting hung up so it's worth checking that out too.

I finally got my 95 on the road with its new engine the other day. It drives fine and everything but every single time I take the car out for a drive, the traction off light comes on within a fewhundred feet of driving. If I shut the car off and restart it the light stays out until I move the car. The ABS light stays off, you only see the traction light. What can this mean? I replaced the engine in this car, and replaced all the brake lines and the master cylinder. Even if you don't touch the brakes that light comes on.