I took my X in yesterday ago to have a ball joint replaced on my driver side front tire (US) that appeared to be loose. The shop called me an hour later and said it was actually a bearing so they would do that instead.

I picked up the car later that day and it felt strange a few times when braking, like the grinding feeling you get when ABS kicks in. Not even half a mile from the shop, my ABS light went on. I shut the car off and turned it back on, the light stayed off for about a minute and then came back.

So I took the car back to the shop this morning, telling them that this could be because they put the bearing in backwards. The guy apparently had already considered this and decided to try again.

A few minutes ago, they called me to say they re-installed the bearing and tried a new bearing but both still had the ABS light on. Then I was told they didn't have the equipment to read the codes on my car so I need to take it somewhere to have the code read.

What could be the issue? Are they using the wrong bearing? Did they damage the ABS sensor on that wheel?

Any help would be appreciated

 

Evan, it can be everything that you said. Having the code would tell you a bit more information. I would say to pull the wheel off and then pull the wheel speed sensor off and look at the end. It will be pretty obvious if the sensor has been damaged (you will see big cuts or chips in the plastic. If the sensor looks fine, also look at the wiring. They may have smacked the wiring and damaged that, leading to a ground (this would wipe out the signal being generated by the wheel speed sensor).

If all that looks good, what you can do is take a multimeter and connect it to the 2 pins on the sensor (set the multimeter to a 2V DC scale). While holding the sensor still, pass a large metal object (must be magnetic, like a large screw driver) near the tip of the sensor. You should see the multimeter indication jump. If you do, then you know the sensor is good. The faster and closer that you can move the metal object, the better. BUt, don't get too close. Hate to see you damage the sensor.

 

Thanks for the reply Chris. I went to the jag dealer but they don't hav time for me until tomorrow morning. I will go in before work and have them pull the code to see what's going on.

According to the shop, they removed and replaced the sensor without damaging it and they installed the bearing correctly both the first and second time. I'm leaning toward the theory of them not using the right bearing but I'll know for sure tomorrow.

I just want to confirm with you or anyone else who might know: Is there something special about a jag bearing as opposed to a generic bearing that is necessary for the sensor to work or are all these bearings pretty much the same?

 

After reading other threads on this forum I see that other members have had issues with generic bearings. I called the shop and they confirmed they installed a generic bearing instead of a jag bearing so I ordered an OEM one from JPLV and will have it installed next week

 

Evan, I am sure that if you used a generic bearing, they were only looking at the inner and outer diameters and finding something that would work. I doubt that they would be trying to find something with the special gear teeth inside of it for the speed sensor. If you had a battery powered o'scope, you would be able to confirm that as you could connect it up to the speed sensor wiring and see the pulses.

 

New bearing is on it's way from JPLV. I'll update this next week once I have it put in. Sounds like this should solve the problem though.

 

Part arrived today, shipping was much faster than I expected.

As for installing it, hopefully someone knows the answer to this: Does the painted dot face in or out when installed?

I'd like to confirm this so I can tell the shop and get it done the right way the first time

 

And we're officially all good. The new bearing solved the ABS light problem