Help, low trac light?!?!
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2003
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Help, low trac light?!?! well everytime my car moves fast in one direction or the other the low trac light goes on, like, lets say i start braking, the light comes on, i stop for 5 or so seconds, light goes off, i start moving again, light comes on, cruise for 5 or so seconds, light goes of.... this same thing happened to me before when i went over this one speed bump, front tires went over and i hit the brakes, i know the wheels had traction but the light came on, and the problem started when i spun the wheels for like 2secs on a dirt road. oh and everytime the light goes on i can feel wierd **** going on in the brake pedal, i think its the abs solenoids because you can hear them clicking too.
so bascially my problem is the light comes on when its not suppose to and when its on and i brake the abs solenoids kick in, but i have traction.
help... plz... this pedal **** makes it horrible driving.. anybody have this problem?? anybody know how to turn it off (the trac control, or abs, which ever the problem is) so i can drive w/o vibrations in the pedal?
so bascially my problem is the light comes on when its not suppose to and when its on and i brake the abs solenoids kick in, but i have traction.
help... plz... this pedal **** makes it horrible driving.. anybody have this problem?? anybody know how to turn it off (the trac control, or abs, which ever the problem is) so i can drive w/o vibrations in the pedal?
You have a switch on the dash that you can turn off the TCS with, right? Any time one wheel turns at a different speed than the others, it's normal for the light to come on, such as spinning the tires on a gravel road or skipping over a speed bump. If all four of your tires aren't the same size, you can have this problem.
But if you're sure it comes on when it isn't supposed to, try re-seating all four of the wheel sensor plugs. Also check the rear reluctor wheels for debris, as well as the sensors themselves. If that doesn't solve it, you may have a bad sensor somewhere. The rear ones are easy to remove, so see if you can swap them with somebody else's to isolate the problem. The front sensors are built into the hubs, so if it comes down to them, you might have to pay the dealer to run a diagnostic. Just tell them you want only the diagnostic, not to actually fix it. You can fix it yourself once you know where the problem is.
But if you're sure it comes on when it isn't supposed to, try re-seating all four of the wheel sensor plugs. Also check the rear reluctor wheels for debris, as well as the sensors themselves. If that doesn't solve it, you may have a bad sensor somewhere. The rear ones are easy to remove, so see if you can swap them with somebody else's to isolate the problem. The front sensors are built into the hubs, so if it comes down to them, you might have to pay the dealer to run a diagnostic. Just tell them you want only the diagnostic, not to actually fix it. You can fix it yourself once you know where the problem is.
Yeah that's becasuse the low-trac light is hooked into the abs system; even cars without asr still get the low-trac light. The wheel sensors are magnetized, so they seem to collect metal. I clean mine off all the time.
Copy & Paste Moderator
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 9,764
Likes: 208
From: Eastern MA
VIP1, that thread was hillarious! Your post was right on, however:
OK....
"It seems that when the front and rear wheels are spinnig at a different enough rate for the computer to consider outside of normal operating range, the computer considers this situation a "loss of tranction" and turns on the "Low Trac" light. If you are braking, ABS kicks in. If TCS/ASR is on, it kicks in. If you are accelerating and TCS/ASR is off, it just indicates tire spin."
OK....
"It seems that when the front and rear wheels are spinnig at a different enough rate for the computer to consider outside of normal operating range, the computer considers this situation a "loss of tranction" and turns on the "Low Trac" light. If you are braking, ABS kicks in. If TCS/ASR is on, it kicks in. If you are accelerating and TCS/ASR is off, it just indicates tire spin."
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Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2003
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haha that thread is funny... is there such thing as a vehicle speed sensor? i dunno how this whole system works but when my car changes alot in speed, the light comes on, so if there was a sensor called that, i think mine might be bad, any way.
what am i suppose to clean, is it hard to do? and if i just wanna get rid of my abs for a little while, since its malfunctioning anyway, i can just pull out the fuse, right? (its the abs bat fuse?)
what am i suppose to clean, is it hard to do? and if i just wanna get rid of my abs for a little while, since its malfunctioning anyway, i can just pull out the fuse, right? (its the abs bat fuse?)
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Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2003
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lol so i guess thats what im going to have to do. but im away at college and i have to drive 3 hours to get home, so does anyone think its alright to drive it like this?? it still bvreaks, just abs kicks in everytime. and anyway to disable abs w/o having crazy warning lights, because i pulled the fuse (3 of them actually) and each time it would say abs inop (wich was expected) ars off and the brake light, and when i checked the manual it says when the brake liht is on along with the abs inop that my brake system has failed ans i may lose brake pressure etc., so any suggestions, comments, anything???
TECH Resident
Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Chicago, IL
Did you install headers or anything else recently? I had this problem this past spring/summer. The ABS INOP light would come on randomly. Braking wasn't diminished but sometimes when I pulled into a parking space or came to a stop the ABS would kick in. We're talking very light braking that doesn't even have a chance of making the brakes lock up and it'd kick on. I checked the sensors and aside from a little debris they were fine. I cleaned them and still had the problem. I mentioned it to a dealer tech and he found it really quick. The ABS wires were too close to the headers/y-pipe and got a little scorched. He repaired them and zip-tied them up out of the way. No more problem.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2003
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hmmm... i got headers, but theyve been there for a while. i think what happened is that it was a problem before, but i always drove my car easy, i went wot but i did not burn out or anything (too expensive on tires), like before it would go on when it was suppose to, but it would stay on for a little too long. Then maybe the time i did it in the sand, it finally got messed it up. It was fine until i dropped the clutch n made the tires spin, it went on and just never went off, i turned the car off and i was happy that the light didnt stay on, but i pull out and the light goes on when it accelerates, and then i brake, and the abs solenoids kick in, and the light goes on, even though there is no slippage.. so i don't know, looks like im going to have to get my car taken to a pro
Copy & Paste Moderator
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 9,764
Likes: 208
From: Eastern MA
You are describing two different issues.
Your car does seem to be acting abnormally, but getting the ABS INOP light during a burnout or dyno pull is normal. The computer is just confused my the huge speed differential between the front and rear wheels. It should clear up eventually. The rest of what you are describing does seem odd though. Try what the others have suggested and keep us posted.
Your car does seem to be acting abnormally, but getting the ABS INOP light during a burnout or dyno pull is normal. The computer is just confused my the huge speed differential between the front and rear wheels. It should clear up eventually. The rest of what you are describing does seem odd though. Try what the others have suggested and keep us posted.
I doubt it was caused by the way you drive it. You should be able to do burn outs all day without messing up the abs/tcs system. Even when the system gets freaked out, you can still shut down and restart to clear the problem. The wires getting cooked on the headers sounds likely to me, even if they have been on there a while.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2003
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problem found.. after 750 worth of work & parts :-\ (other work was done too tho) what happened, my mechanic says says, is that 2 oof the axle retainer bolts got sheared off and were spinning around in the ebrake housing so it made a bunch of shrapnel, which dirty'd up the reluctance wheel, and on top of that 2 other retainer bolts were loose, he says that the axle has junkyard writing on it, but it looks in good condition, but when they put it in they didnt do it right n didnt use tread lock or nething, so he had to do some work with the axle. the other work i had done was just new rear rotors and new brakes, and i had my cut-out removed... it sucked, couldnt go over speed bumps without it gettin caught up on em, and that kept pulling my exhaust out of place and making a rattle, so i think it was like 300 to remove and repair the axle and all that other good stuff.
Good job getting it fixed! Probably a joy to drive now.
also i just figured out what happens when your low trac light comes on...your computer retards the timing and makes your engine weaken down so you will stop spinning. hptuners takes care of that tho. anyway. just a bit of info.
