I took my 4-year-old Forester XT to a Subaru dealer on Wednesday to have the bearings for the right rear wheel replaced under warranty (because of excessive noises). When I called on Thursday afternoon a service manager said that the bearings had already been replaced but the mechanic was still checking on the ABS. He told me that it's a standard practice to do this. I wanted to tell him to leave it alone because the ABS light had never come on but decided not to say this because I thought it wouldn't be a nice thing to say.
Then the service manager called me back and said that the ABS sensor was bad and must be replaced. He said that it would take several days to get a new one for me but I could keep driving the car until then.
I went to pick up the car on Friday and noticed that the ABS light was on even before I started driving. I asked the service manager about this and he said that it won't go off until I get the sensor replaced.
This light is so bright that I find it distracting even during the day while I'm looking at the road in front of me.
Since my 3-year warranty has expired and this sensor is not covered by the 5-year powertrain warranty I can't help but wonder what the mechanic could have done to cause this light to come on.
So if anybody happens to know about ABS sensors please tell me what you think could have happened.
- The sensor is located close to the bearings and got damaged during the replacement of the bearings.
- The sensor got damaged during its inspection.
- The sensor was already bad before I took my car to the dealer but the ABS light had failed to come on so the mechanic just turned it on for me.
BTW, my car has about 28,000 (mostly freeway) miles.
Thanks in advance for your opinions.