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I wonder if yours is intermittent too which may account for why you saw it on the DVM but it reports a fault. I've never used a Hammer so i don't know if that would show you a historic / intermittent fault.
I'd start with the clock, I did all the connections but I think it was the big +ve one which had the poor connection. On that note, my spoiler light comes on at start, stays on while I start off down the road then clears. But it never triggers the central warning light so I don't see it as a problem.
My lesson here was to work through logically using the DVM as guided by Flamefront. I do believe that until this wire failed completely I may not have found it.
On that note, my spoiler light comes on at start, stays on while I start off down the road then clears. But it never triggers the central warning light so I don't see it as a problem.
Really useful thread, my car has been off the road for months and now I'm getting the brake pressure lights/warning so will be using this to help me troubleshoot on the weekend.
Following drola's advice, I dug some more in the wire gang going through the passenger floor area and found the two black wires (~6 mm OD with a rigid covering) that carry the rear ABS sensor signals. A few minutes of surgery later I had the RR wire cut open and could check continuity to either end of the harness.
I found that the yellow wire was fine from either end, but that the sheath (which leads to the black wire at the T2 connector by the front firewall) was "open" from the point I had cut the wire to the rear "white cylinder" connector. I soldered and heat shrinked everything back together and ran a jumper wire from my repair spot to the rear connector, bridging the "break" in my outer sheath conductor.
Upon start-up, I got the central warning light (which I now believe is due to the battery voltage dropping below 9VDC per jlmartin94's advice) but no other lights came on. Upon driving, no lights! And the odd brake pedal feel I had at low speeds is gone. Eureka!
I will go back and trace the break in the sheath conductor and repair it.
Thanks to everyone who weighed-in on this issue.
Lessons Learned: For my situation, going to the ABS module connector and doing the pin-out check of the four ABS sensors was the short route to the problem. From there it was just methodical hunting-down of the broken connection. For NateSaJack it was in his white cylinder (which is exposed to the elements and a logical failure point). For mine, the discontinuity was in the right rear ABS sensor harness which is buried under lots of carpet, insulating foam, and animal glue (tons of animal glue under a Targa's rear carpet!).
So now I have a dash that looks like it should: a photo from my commute this morning. I will not take a quiet instrument panel for granted again...
10-02-2014, 03:25 PM
