ABS light is on, any ideas?

[Lylos]

Hi Fellas,

My ABS light has been coming on for some time. It doesn't seem to be effecting my driving experience in any way but I just thought I'd see if anyone else has come across this problem before and whether it's something I should be worrying about.

Thanks in advance.

Lylos

[Mikester]

Probably a sensor, about £15 from GSF or eurocar parts, dont get them of ebay, they are easy to replace. Use this thread here:

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=57396.0

To fix the problem

Now lots of other people are guna post what i said! haha

[boneybradley]

I'm not but i will agree with what mike say's!!  :embarassed:

[beni-iow]

ill also agree.thats what it was for mine

[MK3GTI_16Valve]

Dont know if you know this but if the abs light is on your abs is disabled. Prob should start with testing each sensor, worth fixing this issue as soon as you can

[Mikester]

Dont know if you know this but if the abs light is on your abs is disabled. Prob should start with testing each sensor, worth fixing this issue as soon as you can

Yep, that is what i means, and in the thread i linked them it tells you how to test the sensors with a multi meter 

If they are all ok, its the abs pump, also u can have a fault with more than 1 sesnor or the a sesnor and pump.

And the light may go of when and on, but its not fixed.

[Pete Taylor]

One thing to bear in mind is that the ABS light on is an instant MOT failure if you have that coming up soon. If you have a laptop (which isn't running vista) then get yourself a diagnostic cable for about a tenner off ebay. Then you can find the fault quickly without having to prod around with a multimeter and also scan the engine for any faults too

[faz186]

pete do u have to have some sort of computer package for the diagnostic on a laptop or do u just plug and play

[Lylos]

Thank-you for the replies. I'm gonna tackle this job myself.

I do have a laptop but it's running Vista and don't really want to have to install XP but I like the idea of a diagnostic tool. My car is a 1996 so it should have the 16-pin connector to attach the diagnostic cable to.

Failing that I'll go with the multimeter tests...

Thanks for the link Mikester, that looks like a fully comprehensive guide to sorting out the problem. 

[Pete Taylor]

If your car is a 1996 model onwards then your car has AN OBDII Diagnostic port. If you pull the ashtray in the dash out completely, you can slide the blank to the left of it out to the right to reveal the diagnostic port. You will need to lead to connect the port to a laptop first which you can get cheap on Ebay like this one...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-KKL-409-1-VAG-COM-AUDI-VW-SEAT-SKOD-EOBD-OBD2-Cable_W0QQitemZ120231963993QQihZ002QQcategoryZ30921QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Then you will need to download the software for your laptop free from Ross tech. The version you need is 409.1 for modern serial interfaces (the laptop will recognise the USB lead as a serial lead) and this will not work with windows vista, so you will need XP or a previous version to run it. The software can be downloaded free from here... (download on the left at the bottom)

http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/download/archives.html

The software is free although it is a trial version. This still allows you to read and clear ABS, airbag and engine fault codes