Brake light and ABS warning

[tuna_fisher]

Driving home yesterday from the coast my ABS light and brake light on my dash both came on, anyone experienced this before? If so what was the problem?

[creeper]

It's a warning light, never ignore it have it checked. Had the ABS light come on in our F350. Turns out one half of the 4x4 locked due to a bad do hickey in the hub, no 4 wheel drive in huge snow storm. Needed to replace bearing, auto locking hub, plus front gears. Our ABS light was on in our coach last June. Seemed to brake like normal, turns out the hydraulic brakes were on their way out and that was the first warning before complete failure, 6k part to get rid of ABS light. Yes apples to oranges, but still have it checked.

[majorgator]

tuna fisher wrote:
Thanks for all the advice, seems like it could be a lot of things. The lights did not come on after being shut down for a couple of days. The brakes seemed to work normal during the 2hrs of driving after the lights came on. Half that driving was in stop/go traffic and as said no problem such as pulsating or fade or anything except normal braking. I really hate driving with those dash warning lights on, can't get my mind off what the problem might be, drives me crazy. I guess when I get time soon I'll start looking for the problem.

Worrying about a little ole dash light, are ya? I just traded in my '07 Z71 with 217K miles, and the "check engine" light was on for most of the last 100K miles. Truck ran fine and performed like new. Best truck I ever had, and the only mechanical work i ever did to it was....replacing both front hubs.

Yep, ABS light came and went. I lifted the side and checked the tire "slop" with a pry bar underneath it, which confirmed the hub bearing was going out. Did one and then did the other about 40k or 50k later. Fixed the Issue both times. I recall the NAPA hubs costing something like $110 each. You can fix it in an hour or less with basic tools and large socket (33mm I think).

[tuna_fisher]

All seems fine with braking and If I don't have ABS I'm not going to loose sleep over it. The problem is I don't want something going wrong when out in the boonies or on the interstate doing 60mph cause I didn't fix the problem.

[Hornnumb2]

If you can solder its a pretty simple fix, solder joints get weak and need resoldering. If you want to give it a shot PM me and I will give you detailed instructions. MIchael

[mkirsch]

That's the purpose of the dash lights.

Of course I have been driving my '02 with the ABS and Brake warning lights on for the better part of 5 years now, and I don't think anything of it, because I know why: The 60A ABS fuse is sitting in the ash tray.

We ruined the ABS sensors on Dad's truck trying to "clean" them because we misunderstood the description of the solution, so his ABS light was on. The solution? A piece of black tape. His has new front hubs now so the ABS is working again.

[tuna_fisher]

Thanks for all the advice, seems like it could be a lot of things. The lights did not come on after being shut down for a couple of days. The brakes seemed to work normal during the 2hrs of driving after the lights came on. Half that driving was in stop/go traffic and as said no problem such as pulsating or fade or anything except normal braking. I really hate driving with those dash warning lights on, can't get my mind off what the problem might be, drives me crazy. I guess when I get time soon I'll start looking for the problem.

[mowermech]

The OP shows he has an '01 GMC Duramax.
Did those have 4 wheel ABS, or 2 wheel?
If only two wheel ABS, the loss of the function is not worth worrying about, IMO.

[racerguy351]

If the ABS light is on none of the wheels will have ABS working.

[BenK]

Which means that, that wheel will NOT have ABS...while the others will...

Meaning uneven braking.

Either pull the ABS fuse to have all four corners regular/non-ABS braking or have
that one wheel tone ring (geared wheel that has a sensor on it) fixed

I'd not want one wheel/tire to be regular/non-ABS while the other three are ABS

[ACZL]

Reg brakes will still work. ABS side won't.

[jbadtoy]

Mine did that and GM told me it was the wheel speed sensor,and I should just wait for the hub to go bad because it is built into the hub.So six months later guess what,the hub was making noise in the turns and 600 dollars later ABS light off and hub fixed.

[AlmostAnOldGuy]

Hope it turns out to be a simple solution. If you find you need to repair / replace the ABS unit there are some outfits you can find on the web that rebuild them.

Good luck,
Stu

[45Ricochet]

drcook wrote:
Sometimes with Duramaxes (or any GM product using the same parts) you can get some corrosion under the sensor where it attaches to the hub. It will lift it up a bit. This can cause the system to trigger a warning.

Or the sensor itself went bad. We had a sensor go bad and it allowed the brakes to pulsate when coming to a stop and jump forward a couple feet after stopping. This was on our 2004.5 not too long after we bought it.

I am having an intermittent ghost like that myself. When I pull the summer tires and put the winter/storage tires and wheels back on, I am going to check the wheel sensors.

Now I realize you live in the land of no rust, but that would be the first place I would check as all it involves is some time on your part.

These trucks can also get false messages from the ground under the driver if it gets enough dirt/corrosion to interfere with the ground.

Just as an aside (and not suggesting this is the issue), how long has it been since your brakes have been bled? With the GM ABS units, if you ever work on the brakes and get air into the ABS unit, it will have to be bled out at the dealership. It takes a Tech2 unit to open and close the 6 valves in the ABS to get all the air out of it.

X2

[path1]

tuna fisher wrote:
Driving home yesterday from the coast my ABS light and brake light on my dash both came on, anyone experienced this before? If so what was the problem?

Mine is a Dodge and 2001. So electronics in same time era at least in pick up. My brake controller is from our first trailer 1983? My best guess after having this problem a couple times.

Being it cooled off during the night...

If warning lights STILL on even after cooling down overnight... check for ABS wiring being disconnected somewhere. With mine a wire got disconnected just above differential cover. Disconnect caused by road debris.


If warning lights NOT on...warning light did there job to give warning about warmed up brakes. Adjust brake controller so RV does more stopping. Easy to overheat in town with RV doing very little stopping power. Or brake controller is not putting enough elec to RV.