I found out the weekend before last that I had bad brake drag on my LH front wheel, but couldn't get the car into a shop until today. So I set off for the shop, and immediately a fault display and yellow light came up "ABS fault". This had not displayed when the brake drag problem occurred. Anyway, the car drove OK and I arrived at the shop 2 miles away with no problems at all.

Louis, the mechanic, (who has looked after most of my cars for many, many, years) rang later and said the caliper piston was seized and he had fitted a service exchange item. The fault light and display was still there, however, and his code reader wouldn't read the codes. Louis is an excellent mechanic but a bit behind the times on electronic stuff. Anyway, I drove home and searched in the dark corners of my garage and eventually found my code reader, an iCarsoft i930 which I had bought about 3 years ago, but never used.

This i930 is very easy to use, and I managed to get the fault code read, which was for a LH rear wheel sensor for the ABS system. So I purged the code and drove off, only for the fault light and message to immediately appear again. Stopped down the road and did the same again, and the fault came up again. So, entirely fortuitously, it seems the LH rear wheel sensor decided to fail just when I was driving to the workshop for a brake job !

So tomorrow, I'll be calling Louis again to get the wheel sensor sorted out ! This time, I'll lend him the i930 !!

 

Well unfortunately Louis is heavily engaged sorting out a 2003 Volvo, (every nut & bolt rusted-on and immoveable), then is on holiday all next week. So I've ordered a wheel sensor off the internet, and will fit it myself !! Only thing likely to bother me is the weight of the wheel. Really, one could lay tarmac with these modern wheels !!

 

(every nut & bolt rusted-on and immoveable), road salt!

You could try using a jack to lift the wheel and then push it into position.

 

Actually, in the past with the wheels on a Rover 75, I used the garden shovel under the wheel to lever it up and on. The Rover was a pain because it used bolts to hold the wheel on, not studs and nuts. The wheel had to rest on a very shallow cast-in ring on the hub while you put in the first bolt, and easily fell off.

The new sensor arrived today, (ordered yesterday), so looks like a job for the weekend.

 

"The Rover was a pain because it used bolts to hold the wheel on, not studs and nuts."

My Mercedes is the same but it's not so bad because I have been told that the wheels

are Magnesium (or maybe Mg alloy). Fighter jet material!

 

So today, (Sunday) I replaced the wheel sensor and cleared the fault using my i930, and the problem has gone. Puzzling thing is that the old sensor still has continuity and a resistance of about 5000 ohms. I also cleaned the reluctor ring too, but it wasn't too dirty.

Now, with a new LH front caliper on, the brake judder has gone too, so a result !