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ABS and TRACS Dash Lights

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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JRL
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Re: ABS and TRACS Dash Lights

Post by JRL »

*****
Mod note. Jim passed away in early 2022, his contributions to this forum are immortal, and he is missed. RIP

2000 V70R Black, 144,000 miles Wife's R.
2007 V70 2.5T White/Oak 111,000 MILES. Polestar tune, IPD bars, rear spoiler, dark grey Thors, DWS 06, HU850, sub.

tjts1
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Year and Model: 96 855 NA 5 speed
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Post by tjts1 »

JRL wrote:Not really correct
if the light is on, 99% of the time it's NOT working.

And, to the poster who bought a new one, that was a very poor decision!
A new one is as bad as the one your had and went bad and will fail again!
The ONLY good units are the (properly) repaired units which have good solder joints.
Maybe I'm a 1%er then, I haven't done a survey but the ABS still triggers as normal on wet surfaces, snow, ice etc. The pedal does it vibrating thing and the car stops straight without locking up even though the ABS light is on. I can't say all other 850s are the same but if you ABS/tracs light is ON you should test it in a controlled environment before you need it in an emergency situation. No point in throwing money at a problem that can be easily diagnosed.
Ambitious but rubbish

Matty Moo
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Year and Model: 850, 1996
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Post by Matty Moo »

I've run hundreds of these between our two cars, and have tested half of those in the winter on ice.

I've only had one that worked with the ABS light on in the winter.
Image
http://www.midwest-abs.com
Simplycleanpowerwash.com

1996 850 Platinum Wagon. ARD Green Tune, OBX.-Gone
1998 s70 ARD tune, EST exhaust, SE/R interior.
1999 s70 Plain Jane.
2000 s70 GLT
2014 Ram
2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

JRL
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Post by JRL »

Matty Moo wrote:I've run hundreds of these between our two cars, and have tested half of those in the winter on ice.

I've only had one that worked with the ABS light on in the winter.
Thank You
Mod note. Jim passed away in early 2022, his contributions to this forum are immortal, and he is missed. RIP

2000 V70R Black, 144,000 miles Wife's R.
2007 V70 2.5T White/Oak 111,000 MILES. Polestar tune, IPD bars, rear spoiler, dark grey Thors, DWS 06, HU850, sub.

barneybox
Posts: 13
Joined: 18 September 2011
Year and Model: 1996 855T
Location: canada

Post by barneybox »

Is the winter/sport/economy switch on the same circuit as the ABS/TRACs system? Both lights are on (they intermittently go OFF) but I just noticed the w/s/e switch is not lit up now.

tjts1
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Post by tjts1 »

barneybox wrote:Is the winter/sport/economy switch on the same circuit as the ABS/TRACs system? Both lights are on (they intermittently go OFF) but I just noticed the w/s/e switch is not lit up now.
the W S E buttons only govern the automatic transmission. Its unrelated.
Matty Moo wrote:I've run hundreds of these between our two cars, and have tested half of those in the winter on ice.

I've only had one that worked with the ABS light on in the winter.
I guess my car is more special than I thought :lol:
Ambitious but rubbish

barneybox
Posts: 13
Joined: 18 September 2011
Year and Model: 1996 855T
Location: canada

Post by barneybox »

I drove it around and played with the switch. It works fine, the bulbs just burned out....

Matty Moo
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Post by Matty Moo »

tjts1 wrote:
I guess my car is more special than I thought :lol:
It really doesn't make sense though since the module runs the show and the rest of the system is simply components. The one time I had it happen I didn't bother to figure out why it was working with the light. If it were more common I'd invest the time into figuring it out.

The age of the cars that use these is a big factor too. 5 years ago you could always blame the module for the lights, now that a lot of these cars are hitting the 16 year mark you're running into wiring issues. Things just start to fall apart over time, along with the cars being touched by too many different people.

Maybe once a month somebody will come by and have me install one for them, one guy came back after 5 months thinking his module went bad again...come to find out his front sensor wires weren't routed correctly and had rubbed on the rusty endlinks for so long that they screwed the wiring up. The same guy's car has quite a bit of "unique" engineering done to it, lots of zip-ties, various wood screws..things like that.
Image
http://www.midwest-abs.com
Simplycleanpowerwash.com

1996 850 Platinum Wagon. ARD Green Tune, OBX.-Gone
1998 s70 ARD tune, EST exhaust, SE/R interior.
1999 s70 Plain Jane.
2000 s70 GLT
2014 Ram
2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

keepersboy
Posts: 107
Joined: 28 June 2011
Year and Model: v70 1998 850t 1994
Location: Gunnison Colorado

Post by keepersboy »

Don't waste a bunch of time screwing with this. If it has not failed, it will, before to long. Just get a rebuild from mattymoo and be done with it. This is a pretty cheap easy repair, done this way. I had the same problem with my v70 and after a 30 min repair, all is good.

Juan62
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Year and Model: S70 T-5M 1998
Location: New Orleans
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Post by Juan62 »

I'm going to get my rebuilt this winter just because the age of the car and I see alot of failures going on with this part. So far, it has reached an age of 13, but will soon be time when I least expect it.
98 S70 T5-M Brick for life

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