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Most trouble lights on after hitting bump hard...

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Old Feb 16, 2018 | 01:45 PM
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Default Most trouble lights on after hitting bump hard...

Hi all!

I'm new here and recently bought an 04 with the Ultra Luxury package from a family friend for a great deal. It had just over 200k on it and I have already put on about 5k in the month I have owned it. It had a few issues that needed to be sorted when I bought it, one of which was the leaky front Y-pipe. I thought this was tripping the rear 0/2 sensors which caused a cascade of effects including the check engine light to come on, check VSC light, no traction control, and no cruise.

Well, after fixing the exhaust, the codes for the rear 0/2 sensors kept tripping. My mechanic said at that point he was certain that the senors were bad and needed to be replaced. I opted to hold off for a little while as I decided it wasn't a big deal to just clear the codes with a handheld scanner when they popped up. I only had to do this a few times every hundred of miles. It wasn't that annoying.

I also had the front driver wheel bearing replaced. The previous owner had replaced the other three wheel bearings not even one hundred miles before I bought the car. I'm not sure how they missed the driver side but oh well. Anyway, all seemed to be good until yesterday.

There is a huge bump in front of my neighbors driveway from all the snow and water erosion. I have been going over it for weeks and slowing down significantly when doing so however, yesterday I was in a rush and forgot about it. I hit it at 40 MPH. Instantly all my lights came on except this time the AFS off light was flashing and the ABS light was on. I did't think much of it until I tried to clear the code and my scanner said I had no codes. So I was stuck with everything on and no cruise, ABS, or traction control yesterday.

I called my mechanic and he thought it could have been a pinched wire or something. He said the new wheel bearing may not have been machined properly and could have cut the wire, or something like that. So I took the car in this morning and he hooked it up to a Snap-on scanner. He said that there was a master ABS code on. He said all he could do at the moment was clear the code and see what happens and then go from there.

Well, now today the lights have all been coming on and going off intermittently whereas yesterday they were on all day. So one minute I have cruise and everything works and then the next all my lights are on and nothing works.

The car will probably go back next week for more diagnosing but I am wondering if any of you have any ideas what could be wrong. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by Nyaa; Feb 16, 2018 at 04:51 PM.
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Old Feb 17, 2018 | 02:03 PM
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Well, welcome to the club Nyaa from a fellow Wisconsinite..

if if its intermittent, then you no doubt have a damaged wire someplace in the front suspension area. At this point all you can do, is start digging around and look at the wiring for the wheel speed sensors and any other wiring that may be located near a suspension piece.

It it should be an easy find, for someone that knows what to look for..

Let us us know what is found and hang in there.. These are great cars, but sometimes things have to get sorted out as the car ages...
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Old Feb 17, 2018 | 02:11 PM
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Wherever I buy a new car, first thing I do is check all fuses. It possibly can sort some issues for you. Great way to start.
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Old Feb 17, 2018 | 03:52 PM
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Check your battery connections. May have jarred one loose.
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Old Feb 17, 2018 | 05:24 PM
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Areas to look at:

1) ABS wheel speed sensor wires.
2) Suspension ride height sensor.
3) Tire.

What brand of wheel bearings was installed on your LS? Was it Koyo or Timken?
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Old Feb 17, 2018 | 07:06 PM
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I'd give a visual inspection to your front ABS wires, chances are you won't actually see anything obvious. Now these wires are so small inside the insulation that you easily could have torn one of them without the shiething actually tearing. What you'll have to do is disconnect the wire from the sensor, and also disconnect it from where the abs wire connects further up (in the fender or under the hood). Then simply ohm out the two wires from end to end. You should see zero resistance or really very close to it, however if you see a symbol for "open", then you have a broken wire.

I don't understand why your mechanic couldn't determine which wheel was giving you the trouble, his scan tool has a feature that allows him to isolate each wheel speed sensor, drive the car, and determine which one isn't supplying a signal to the computer.
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Old Feb 25, 2018 | 05:01 AM
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Thanks for all the replies and sorry for my late reply. I've been super busy lately.

Originally Posted by 2KHarrier
Well, welcome to the club Nyaa from a fellow Wisconsinite..

if if its intermittent, then you no doubt have a damaged wire someplace in the front suspension area. At this point all you can do, is start digging around and look at the wiring for the wheel speed sensors and any other wiring that may be located near a suspension piece.

It it should be an easy find, for someone that knows what to look for..

Let us us know what is found and hang in there.. These are great cars, but sometimes things have to get sorted out as the car ages...

Thanks for the welcome!

Unfortunately, my mechanic couldn't find anything obvious when he put it up on the hoist. The weather is a bit too cold and my garage is a bit of a mess right now so I can't get the car inside to jack it up myself so I'm unable to personally inspect it.

You are right that these are indeed amazing cars. To be honest, I bought the car for a super good deal so I was originally planning to fix the few things wrong with it and then flip the car. However, I have since fallen in love with the car so now I plan to keep it.

[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Kodiak303
Wherever I buy a new car, first thing I do is check all fuses. It possibly can sort some issues for you. Great way to start.

If a fuse was blown and it was causing this problem, wouldn't it be an all the time thing and not intermittent?

Originally Posted by Leeroy
Check your battery connections. May have jarred one loose.
Wouldn't that bad connection be causing other problems as well though? Like maybe the car just having no power?

Originally Posted by ls430w140
Areas to look at:

1) ABS wheel speed sensor wires.
2) Suspension ride height sensor.
3) Tire.

What brand of wheel bearings was installed on your LS? Was it Koyo or Timken?




I believe my mechanic looked at the ABS speed sensor wires and wires but I don't think he checked the suspension ride height sensor. I'll have to ask him.

I'm not sure which brand the wheel bearings are. Three were replaced before I bought the car. I could probably find out if I made a couple phone calls. As for the driver front that my mechanic replaced, I forget the brand. I trusted my mechanic and went with a brand that he trusts. It was more pricey than the ones floating around online but he said they had a good warranty so I went with it. I can ask him and get back to you.

Originally Posted by Doublebase
I'd give a visual inspection to your front ABS wires, chances are you won't actually see anything obvious. Now these wires are so small inside the insulation that you easily could have torn one of them without the shiething actually tearing. What you'll have to do is disconnect the wire from the sensor, and also disconnect it from where the abs wire connects further up (in the fender or under the hood). Then simply ohm out the two wires from end to end. You should see zero resistance or really very close to it, however if you see a symbol for "open", then you have a broken wire.

I don't understand why your mechanic couldn't determine which wheel was giving you the trouble, his scan tool has a feature that allows him to isolate each wheel speed sensor, drive the car, and determine which one isn't supplying a signal to the computer.

My mechanic was only able to do a quick inspection. I just got done spending around $1k with him on the car just the other week so he kinda squeezed me in as a courtesy. He didn't have any of his mechanics free nor was he free himself to to put much time into the car. He didn't have time to take it out on the road with the scanner either. He said he would have to schedule me in for later but I haven't had time to take it in.

So here is the weird thing. The first day this happened, I went the whole day with the lights on. The second day, it was happening like half the day and then it would all go away. The next day, it only happened a couple times. Now, it hasn't happened for days! All my codes still trip, but I'm able to clear them with the handheld scanner just like before.

So now I don't know what is going on. The problem doesn't seem to be occurring anymore so I don't feel as rushed to figure out what was happening. If it starts happening again, I'll have to take it in.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Last edited by Nyaa; Feb 25, 2018 at 06:15 AM.
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