I have a 2000 BMW 325i and sometimes my abs light comes on and with it accompanies the traction control light

Jin’s question:

I have a 2000 BMW 325i and sometimes my abs light comes on and with it accompanies the traction control light. I have no idea where to start since it seems intermittent.”

Answer:

OK, the ABS system and the traction control system are an interlocked system. So often a light coming on in one will cause a light to come on in the other. On a BMW, those systems are computer controlled monsters that require some super expensive scan tools to analyze. Even I don’t work on their ABS systems, I send them to a German I know who has the correct equipment (and who thinks hundred dollar bills are for lighting cigars, if you know what I mean.) The scanner and software required for American cars and Japanese cars isn’t all that bad to buy, but German cars–that’s another story. But, you could remove all four wheels and check the wheel sensor wiring for breaks or frays, and could remove each wheel sensor and clean it of debris. The sensors are magnetic and will pick up any magnetic debris you drive over, and cause faults in the computer system which doesn’t understand the strange signal that they then send to it. Who knows, you might get lucky and find a sensor that has a lot of debris on it and you can just wipe it off and clean it’s mounting area up also. Now on the plus side, that ABS system is a fail safe system, so when it stops working, you just go back to normal, non ABS braking. When many people discover the immense cost of fixing ABS, they often decide to live with normal brakes.


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