brake warning light

The ABS light and parking brake light are stuck in the illuminated mode. Been that way for nearly two years. Is the any solution to this. I have thought about pulling the fuse but that turns off other needed warning lights. I have a 98 Ram SLT

Reply to
denzon
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Well, you could try having your brakes fixed...you never considered that?

Reply to
Advocate

There are two things that you can do. The first one is to fix the problem. The second is to unplug the ABS computer.

Reply to
TBone

Or unscrew the light bulb.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

He would have to unscrew 2 of them and then he would lose the brake warning completely and trust me, you really don't want to do that on a RAM with the shit they use for metal brake lines. But then again, with it lit all of the time, it really isn't telling him anything anyway.

Reply to
TBone

And when it comes time for an emision inspection they won't do it with any warning lights on.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

Emissions have little to do with the brake light but he will probably fail the safety inspection if the state he lives in has one and it doesn't work or stays on. If he disconnects the ABS computer (on rear wheel ABS only), the BRAKE light will still operate normally and the ABS light will just stay out and in most cases, they don't test for the ABS light anyway.

Reply to
TBone

And if any half-competent inspector looks at it, he'll notice that there is no ABS indicator lamp during the lamp check when first turning on the ignition, and you fail the safety portion of that inspection.

Reply to
Tom Lawrence

Most of the time, they don't even look and in NJ, they never shut the vehicle off (while I lived there) so they have no way to tell but they do step on the E-brake to make sure that both the Brake light and the E-brakes work. My truck has had the ABS computer unplugged for 3 years now and has yet to fail the safety inspection and it stops MUCH better now that it is unplugged.

Reply to
TBone

A few years back they wouldn't inspect mine because the lights were on. I went around the corner, opened up the dash, unscrewed the lights, and came back 15 min. later. It passed with the light bulbs laying on the engine cover in plain sight.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

Replace the vehicle speed sensor located in the top of the rear differential.

Reply to
Davenport

That is not always the cause and on the 98 IIRC, you would also have a speedometer jumping issue.

Reply to
TBone

That's correct. My speedo wouldn't register anything til I got over

20 mph when the sensor first went, and gradually got worse over time.

Kinda inconvenient too - at the time most of my driving was on a military base where the speed limits were 25 mph or less.

Greg

Reply to
Greg Surratt

Probally something simple to fix, do a dianostic check and fix it. Most of the time it is a sensor at the top of the rear that needs to be cleaned of metal particles. You can try to reset the computer by unplugging then plugging it back in, or disconnecting the battery and see if it clears it up.

Reply to
chuckster

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