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

so my traction control light comes on at times and when i push the button to turn the light off it doesnt do anything and eventually the light turns off, any ideas whats going on??

bad wire to one or another of the wheel hub ABS sensors. Someone with a GM Tech II scanner might be able to tell you which one if a code was stored. Will show us as a bad sensor (meaning go replace the hub) but odds would be it is a bad wire. Some of those wires were kinda brittle and would break inside the insulation or at the connector crimps.

I have one little issue with that...the ABS light would come on as well if a sensor were going bad. Is the ABS light coming on at the same time? Hopefully we're dealing with some missing info.

No sometimes the abs light comes on in mine, but after I flushed the brake fluid it was fine

I'm going to guess here that if you have the codes pulled from the vehicle, you're going to get some sort of "Requested Torque" code.
If you could, have to codes read for yourself. Nobody on this site is going to be able to help you unless you get the code(s) for us.

My ABS and traction light is staying on. Will I be able to go to AZ and have them tell me which hub is bad? I dont have a scanner and the lights are getting annoying.

chitown_riv98 wrote:

My ABS and traction light is staying on. Will I be able to go to AZ and have them tell me which hub is bad?  I dont have a scanner and the lights are getting annoying.  

No. AZ's little $40 scanner doesn't pull ABS or SRS codes.

After doing a search for info regarding Traction Control and ABS lights all I found out is that I don't have a clue what was being discussed. It seems that just about everything under the hood was mentioned as a possible cause. Who can help me? I just purchased a 96 Riv today and the only fault I could find was the Traction Control and ABS lights were on. The previous owner told me that those lights have been going on and off for a few months but everything seems to work well. What does this mean and why are they on together? JBeganny

I'm having same problems, I just put tape over my light cause I couldn't figure out, something about a sensor sensing different wheel speeds? Idk I'd like some help for this to, what repairs I would have to do.

It may be something as simple as a wheel speed sensor. Does your car have a noisy wheel bearing. If so, that would most likely be the culprit. If not, the wheel speed sensors can be tested with a multimeter. If you don't feel this is something you can do, many repair shops have scanners that can monitor the speed sensors to diagnose if one is bad.

If a faulty speed sensor is the problem, it will require replacing the hub and bearing assembly for that wheel.

There is nothing any of us can do to help either one of you without having the code that corresponds with the ABS and Traction lights. No, a simple code reader will not pull ABS codes. You'll have to find somebody that has a diagnostic scanner, or take it to a shop and have it diagnosed. Chances are, it's a bad WSS. Like BigDave has said, you'd have to replace the entire hub/bearing assembly to repair a bad WSS. It could be a corroded harness. Water intrusion into the WSS connector at the hub certainly isn't uncommon.

It could be quite a few things. Generally, an ABS light stays on is usually something fairly easy...a hard fault. If your lights are going on and off intermittently (not every drive cycle), you may have other, not-so-easy issues to deal with.

Please pull the codes. Without them, talking about this any further is really a waste of time.

Quote :

I just put tape over my light cause I couldn't figure out, something about a sensor sensing different wheel speeds? Idk I'd like some help for this to, what repairs I would have to do.

You should get the TC/ABS issue fixed. In the meantime, if you don't want to look at the TC lamp, instead of using tape you can just pop open the side panel on driver side of the dash and remove the bulb.

A simple test for starters - see if any of your wheel bearings have excessive play.

Jack up the car so a wheel is off the ground. Support the car well (jack stands or whatever). Grab the wheel at 12 and 6 oclock and pull back and forth hard. Does the wheel wobble? A little bit of play is normal. The number I've heard is 1/8 inch of play at the top and bottom, but I don't know of any wheel bearing I've tested that's shown less than 1/8 inch of play. The point is, if it moves A LOT, you should get that wheel bearing looked at or replaced.

A side effect of having a lot of play in the wheel bearing is that the ABS sensor that's built into the bearing may go bad, so the ABS light coming on could be a pleasant warning sign that the wheel bearing has a lot of play.

This is not the only reason ABS lights come on, it could be wiring to one of the sensors, which you can inspect visually behind the wheel/brake assembly. It's somewhat common for one of the wires to come loose and rub on a moving part, slicing the wire. It could be that the sensor is simply unplugged. I've found that before - the clip that holds the wire on had snapped off, now I have a zip tie holding one of the plugs in place.

If the wheel bearing doesn't seem too bad, and the wiring passes visual inspection, you'll need to have a shop with a computer that can read ABS codes hook up and tell you what the code is.

Quick question about scanning for codes, since the 1995 has the OBD 1.5 situation the popular code scanner for the consumer is the Actron CP9145. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to support ABS codes.

However, the Actron cp9449 is a very inexpensive ABS code reader and I wondered if anyone had tried it with a 1995? It is OBD 2, but I wonder if that may still work wth a 1.5 car since this is not general codes, but ABS specific? The reader is $60-70 new, so is about as much as taking the car to get scanned, and as such is a pretty good deal. But not sure if it will work on a 95? Anyone know?

Thanks
Al

al_roethlisberger wrote:

Quick question about scanning for codes, since the 1995 has the OBD 1.5 situation the popular code scanner for the consumer is the Actron CP9145.  Unfortunately it doesn't appear to support ABS codes.

However, the Actron cp9449 is a very inexpensive ABS code reader and I wondered if anyone had tried it with a 1995?  It is OBD 2, but I wonder if that may still work wth a 1.5 car since this is not general codes, but ABS specific?  The reader is $60-70 new, so is about as much as taking the car to get scanned, and as such is a pretty good deal.  But not sure if it will work on a 95?  Anyone know?

Thanks
Al

You'll have to read the actual specs of the equipment. GM's Tech II's don't even work on OBD 1.5. We still have to break out the Tech I (which I got to use yesterday...yay). The signals are different, therefore the scan tool you mention above MUST be compatible with both, which I highly doubt it is.

Hi guys update for the winter, when I'm going threw snow if I give it has and the wheel spins, the car will go errrrrrerrrrrrr!! When I turn traction control off, all is well, is this normal? And if traction control is off I get all the wheel spin I want so it's off

Thats the traction control making that sound. Its an ugly sound but its normal!

Really? Weird, I feel like an idiot tryin to get threw snow so I shut if off, I mean imagine a purple boat going up hill in deep snow going errrrr errrr errrr look at me I'm not gonna make it!!! Hahahahaha

Completely normal...That's the EBTCM turning on the ABS to stop wheel spin. Your brakes are literally being applied.

Interesting!! Do you guys keep in on in the snow? IS it worth it cause I always keep traction control of cause the noise drives me nuts, I live in utah

I turn it off. I dont think it helps in the snow and I hate the sound.

I turn it off driving in snow because it slows the wheels down so much you can't get going from a stop where a little wheelspin is needed. I think the TC works great all other times though. (except at the dragstrip of course)

I took my 1995 Riviera in because I had a shimmy in the front end. The diagnosis was bad front tires. (It did feel like a tire was out of balance since the shimmy was intermitent)

Got the car back after installing a complete set of radials and also had new front struts installed as well. Noticed the shimmy was still there the other day but that's not what I am concerned about right now.

As soon as I got in the car to drive it home from the shop, the Antilock and Traction lights came on and will not go out.

Anyone have any ideas what might be going on? I removed the and replaced the fuse after a few mimutes trying to reset the lights, but that didn't work.

What could the "technicians" have done while installing new tires and struts to screw up the antilock and traction system?

The car is going back to the shop of course. Just wanted other opinions.

Thanks.

They may have damaged the wires that go to one of the wheel speed sensors. Should not be to hard for them to check.

bigdave wrote:

They may have damaged the wires that go to one of the wheel speed sensors. Should not be to hard for them to check.

X2.

However, I wouldn't have left the shop with the lights on. As soon as I saw they were on I would've been up someones ass about it.
Make sure you tell them your shimmy isn't fixed either. They obviously didn't test drive it after the repair.