It's not always the ABS module

[abscate]

I have a business partner in Voralberg, and it used to crack him up at trade shows when I told people we were in Austria, land of kangaroos. Geography isn’t always a strong point in the US

Decades ago, I pulled up in a Burger King Drive through in Valley Springs, CA 95252, and the girl at the window asks me where I'm from. Said she could hear an accent, said I wasn't from the Valley (true). I replied "Austria". She said: Wow, I always wanted to go there. Is Crocodile Dundee like a national hero for you? I told her we have a monument for him in like every town. Then I took off with my 72 Continental...

You invented hot dogs, too.

[Clemens]

now the secret's out ...

[erikv11]

I have a business partner in Voralberg, and it used to crack him up at trade shows when I told people we were in Austria, land of kangaroos. Geography isn’t always a strong point in the US

Decades ago, I pulled up in a Burger King Drive through in Valley Springs, CA 95252, and the girl at the window asks me where I'm from. Said she could hear an accent, said I wasn't from the Valley (true). I replied "Austria". She said: Wow, I always wanted to go there. Is Crocodile Dundee like a national hero for you? I told her we have a monument for him in like every town. Then I took off with my 72 Continental...

Decades ago, I drove up with my girlfriend to Valley Springs, CA 95252 for a weekend. She's my wife now. Still. We were driving a 69 Mustang ...

[Clemens]

I have a business partner in Voralberg, and it used to crack him up at trade shows when I told people we were in Austria, land of kangaroos. Geography isn’t always a strong point in the US

Decades ago, I pulled up in a Burger King Drive through in Valley Springs, CA 95252, and the girl at the window asks me where I'm from. Said she could hear an accent, said I wasn't from the Valley (true). I replied "Austria". She said: Wow, I always wanted to go there. Is Crocodile Dundee like a national hero for you? I told her we have a monument for him in like every town. Then I took off with my 72 Continental...

Decades ago, I drove up with my girlfriend to Valley Springs, CA 95252 for a weekend. She's my wife now. Still. We were driving a 69 Mustang ...

Erik, what got you to go to Valley Springs? The golf course, the lake or crack? No too much else to do there ...

[erikv11]

We did go to the lake but really none of the above and nothing special really. It was the 80s, we had access to a house up there, just someplace to go and get out of the bay area.

[Matty Moo]

I battle this on a daily basis.

There are years of threads across all forums that pretty much spell out that if the lights are on then the module is bad. Those days are done.

I scan every module that comes back in after I clean, repair and test it. Sometimes they have the standard 13 codes where they let the module go forever until the speedo was gone. Sometimes there's only two right rear codes where they decided to replace it the day the lights came on intermittently.

If the modules that didn't go all the way with 13 codes, 30% of those will show faults that aren't the module. It's almost always a wire. Usually up front.

"I checked the wires, they look great". Nope. They break internally from 20+ years of moving. That wire isn't as big as it looks, the wires inside are super thin. And you can't just plug a new section in on a 96-98

To make matters worse, people will get a scan and get told to buy new sensors from some mechanic. So they buy some aftermarket sensors and throw them in. So now they have a broken wire with some new sensors that are usually faulty out of the box. They put a new issue on top of the old one. This has happened on my end at least twenty times.

High/low voltage is another.
98 clusters failing
The ebd pressure switch does actually fail occasionally.
Tone rings rot apart, mainly up here where there is salt.
Cars that have been touched by drunken uncles or sketchy nephews that took an auto class in high school.
My personal favorite. "I just picked up this sweet Volvo for $500, the seller said all it needs is an abs module". When I hear that I know the car is a $2k FCP order away from being just OK. It's also loaded with butt connectors, zip ties, rtv all over and a mirror full of air fresheners to cover the smell of 500 cartons of cigarettes.

[abscate]

My personal favorite. "I just picked up this sweet Volvo for $500, the seller said all it needs is an abs module". When I hear that I know the car is a $2k FCP order away from being just OK. It's also loaded with butt connectors, zip ties, rtv all over and a mirror full of air fresheners to cover the smell of 500 cartons of cigarettes.

I got my butt kicked in a BMW E83 this Spring

With a new job in NYC SWMBO favourite non-Volvo car had a nice habit of kicking into limp mode 20 minutes after getting to highway speed. Nasty

I chased ignition and fuel and finally found a rusty tone ring on right rear , which was shutting off the ECU. Not a single code was set. Finally tracked it down with real time wheel speed data , seeing noise on the signal on that wheel.

[Clemens]

I battle this on a daily basis.

There are years of threads across all forums that pretty much spell out that if the lights are on then the module is bad. Those days are done.

I scan every module that comes back in after I clean, repair and test it. Sometimes they have the standard 13 codes where they let the module go forever until the speedo was gone. Sometimes there's only two right rear codes where they decided to replace it the day the lights came on intermittently.

If the modules that didn't go all the way with 13 codes, 30% of those will show faults that aren't the module. It's almost always a wire. Usually up front.

"I checked the wires, they look great". Nope. They break internally from 20+ years of moving. That wire isn't as big as it looks, the wires inside are super thin. And you can't just plug a new section in on a 96-98

To make matters worse, people will get a scan and get told to buy new sensors from some mechanic. So they buy some aftermarket sensors and throw them in. So now they have a broken wire with some new sensors that are usually faulty out of the box. They put a new issue on top of the old one. This has happened on my end at least twenty times.

High/low voltage is another.
98 clusters failing
The ebd pressure switch does actually fail occasionally.
Tone rings rot apart, mainly up here where there is salt.
Cars that have been touched by drunken uncles or sketchy nephews that took an auto class in high school.
My personal favorite. "I just picked up this sweet Volvo for $500, the seller said all it needs is an abs module". When I hear that I know the car is a $2k FCP order away from being just OK. It's also loaded with butt connectors, zip ties, rtv all over and a mirror full of air fresheners to cover the smell of 500 cartons of cigarettes.

Well, with your rebuilt module on the way, at least I know that it can't be the module because you tested it.
My sensors read the right ohm values. Still lots of things to go bad.

[Clemens]

@ Matty Moo:
You say you can't just replace broken wires on the 96 up cars. What is the solution then?

[misha]

@ Matty Moo:
You say you can't just replace broken wires on the 96 up cars. What is the solution then?

Abs sensor wiring can be repaired.
I repaired a section on my driver's side front abs sensor this winter.
The trick is to crimp the section with crimp connectors and not to solder....just like o2 sensor wiring.

In fact....replacement wiring for abs sensor from Volvo come as a pigtail wiring.