I must have washed my ABS sensors four times this year. And every time I did, sure enough, the faults went away for a while. So it made sense that it was the cleaning that temporarily cured the problem.

WRONG!

It was pushing the connector back onto the sensor that was making the difference. I checked this out one night when the warnings came on. I parked the car, turned the wheels to gain access and just pressed down on the front connectors. Viola! Warnings were gone.

What I've done now is bend the pins in the sensors slightly so that they are not perfectly vertical. I'm hoping that this will give a little more consistent contact inside the connector. So far it's been a couple of weeks - no faults. Nice.

Ahhhh.......

Be careful not to bend the pins so far as to break them (those sensors are stupid expensive!), and be very careful aligning the connector with the slightly "off" pins.

Hopes this helps some of you,

 

I bet what you described has been true for many of us.

Here's a tell: if you get a fault before the car starts moving, that particular fault can't be dirty sensors. if "cleaning the sensors" cleared the fault in the past, it's probably just reseating that's needed.

 

My wife's XK8's wheel sensors do indeed get dirty. At every oil & filter change (a 6,000-mile service interval is my preference) I scrub each one with a toothbrush and dish soap, clean out the four small holes in each one with the bent-out tip of a paper clip, and use electrical contact cleaner spray on the connectors before reseating them. Works for us - no reports of any spurious dash messages whatsoever since I began this routine more than a year ago....

 

Her car ....... her toothbrush.

Graham

 

Of course!