Deal

I am having an issue where my ABS, VSC, Trac, and bulb out indicator lights remain on all the time.

The CEL is not on nor are any codes stored for it.

From other posts on this forum I was able to read the codes for the ABS and the VSC. ABS was 34 and VSC was 43.

Other information about the car that may be relevant. It's a 2003 ES300 with 120000 miles on it.

The Front Brakes were recently worked on and I suspect there could be a problem with them as they have created 'hot spots' and ruined two sets of rotors in 4 months. I now have on the top of the line NAPA rotors and pads. (non aggressive driver who does not ride the brakes)

Prior to trying a zero point calibration is there anything else I should inspect?

Thank you for this great forum.

Deal

Update and hoping for advise. I took the left rear wheel off and followed the wire harness inside the car behind the seat. Found a few dollars in change amongst the crumbs too. I disconnected it and checked the resistance. Over 100 while the other side was 1.2 which is spec. I then took off the harness connected to the sensor, and checked wire continuity, it was fine so it must be the sensor itself. I had trouble taking it out because I have no idea how it is suppose to come out.

I ended up breaking it off with a piece still in the hole. Do I have to take the rotor off to get it out properly? Does it screw in? Any suggestion on where to buy just the sensor online would be appreciated too.

I'm now going to tackle changing the plugs... thanks to the detailed posts about that.

LeX2K

The rear ABS sensors on your car looks like this it's pressed into the back of the hub.


Never removed one but I would imagine you pry it out, might have to remove the hub from the car to do it not sure. You can find replacements on Ebay or Rockauto.com is a good source.

Deal

I didn't get the wheel off today. The spark plugs took me all day. I did manage to find a sensor for $30 from AIP Electronics. I could only find sensors with wire harnesses elsewhere and those were all $130+ Once it arrives the rest of the job should be easy. Thanks for the pic, I was pulling on the harness shell and broke it off, I'll try the heated wood screw trick to try and get the rest out.

Deal

Decided to get the penetrating oil working while I wait for the part to arrive.

!Ugly!

Deal

Long time no update. The replacement sensor arrived today. Part 89544-48020 stamped NSK from Japan. AIP ended up contacting me because they were out of stock with no idea if they were going to restock. I ordered it directly from China via aliexpress. $20 + $30 for shipping. My local dealer had it for $320 and the cheapest other option was $175. So I didn't mind waiting. I just hope I can successfully get the old rusted one out and this one in this weekend.

Deal

Well I am feeling defeated today. I took the car and sensor into a shop to have them install it. They did but the codes did not clear and a couple more were added.

I now get ABS 31, 33, 34 and VSC 43

My mechanic suggested that I probably should have replaced the hub/bearing/sensor assembly instead of just the sensor since it is likely that whatever caused the sensnor to fail is probably the hub vibrating or bearing residue. This makes sense to me especially when the cost is under $100 for the full assembly.

Any suggestions on what to try next?

LeX2K

Aren't those codes saying a sensor failure on more than one wheel?

Deal

Yes, and it's not easy to believe that 3 of 4 sensors would fail at the same time. It makes me think that it could be the ABS ECU or perhaps the one sensor that isn't kicking out a code. I have no experience debugging this type of system.

My next task will be to pull all 4 speed sensors out and clean them and check the wires for continuity and the sensor for resistance. I'm not sure what else to do.

Maybe I should looking at the VSC 43 code and see if that is indicating the primary problem and the ABS codes are secondary.

Deal

Update, still not sure of the root problem.

I reset the codes by shorting Ec and T1 pins on the odb2 connector and then hitting the brake 8 times in under 5 seconds. The ABS 33 (rear passenger) and VSC 43 came back. I followed the wiring and found it was disconnected behind the rear seat. After reconnecting and resetting the codes again the lights remained off. Yippee, so I thought. After a minute driving the lights came back on. The original ABS 34, VSC 43 were back but no other codes.

Because the codes didn't come back until the test drive I knew the wiring was good. A, open circuit triggers the codes immediately. So I now believe the issue must be with the sensor getting a good read off the hub. Time to replace the hub, bearing, sensor assembly. It looks like I can order a pair for under $100 on ebay.