ABS light on '96 850

Greetings all,

My ABS light on my '96 850 has come on, then gone off twice in the last week. Each time it only stays on about 10 minutes or so, then goes back out. The owners manual says to take it to the dealer, but I was wondering if any of you had nay comment on this issue. The car has had regular service and good upkeep, it now has 115k miles on it. Thanks in advance for any oberservations....

Reply to
Fred K
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Reply to
John Y

Very common on 1996-1998 850 and S/V/C70, it's the ABS computer failing. If you can find a place to read the codes, you'll probably find that it reports a problem with the right rear sensor, but that won't cure anything. Slowly the light will be on more and more often.

Reply to
Mike F

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 10:16:53 -0400, Mike F wibbled about:

I think, from other posts, that its a heat related issue - the ABS ECU is overheating and failing.

Look at the links below - 1 UK, 1 USA which might come in useful

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Sean

Reply to
Sean Nugent

Thank you for the tip, I hadn't checked my tire pressure.... My battery cranks the car fine.. so I dunno about that. Will check it, thanks again.

Reply to
Fred K

Thanks for those links, might save me a bundle, they are permanently bookmarked!

I'll have to investigate the heat aspect... the light first came on on a cool morning after only 5 minutes or so of operation... temp gauge most likely not even registering yet... and today it was hot as hades, 92 degrees and I drove it 20 miles home at mixed speeds and it never came on.. A bit of a mystery, thanks for your reply.

Reply to
Fred K

This response of mine will probably generate a lot of controversy, but it is true for my boyfriend's '96 850 GLT anyway. His car is fairly well-maintained (dealer serviced at recommended intervals; kept clean; regularly checks fluid levels). The only problem he has is that the rim of the left rear wheel is slightly bent so air escapes out of that tire very very slowly (over several weeks). He keeps all the tires at 38 psi, and over 3 - 4 weeks, the tire on this rim will drop to 30 psi. Anyway, when it does, the ABS light comes on. Reinflating the tire to the right psi makes it go away.

A month ago, we found a second condition under which the ABS light came on. We hadn't driven the car for about 2 weeks, and the battery had run down. After driving the car for about two miles, the ABS light came on. The next morning we check the tire pressure and they were all okay. We had to drive to Wisconsin (from Chicago), so set off for Wisconsin in his car anyway. Maybe that recharged the battery or whatever, but the light went out, and hasn't come back on again.

So empirically, I believe the post about low batterys causing the ABS light come on, and I would like to add that at least in one '96 850, an under- inflated tire causes the ABS light to come on.

Beverly

Reply to
Bev A. Kupf

Hi I had the same problem with my 93 850GLT around 250 kmiles, readout said rear right sensor but checking the sensor it had no fail but the wire from the sensor to the conector under the rear seat was broken and caused periodic fault. Also the pulse weels can cause periodic fault as they brake caused by corrosion on the driveshafts or hubs.

good luck Per

Reply to
Per Rasmussen

There's no controversy in your answer - both problems you mention will cause error codes. However the tire needs to be nearly flat (different wheel speeds) and if you have battery (or alternator) problems enough to cause the ABS light to come on, usually there are other problems as well.

Reply to
Mike F

We will be on the lookout for these. As far as the tire pressure goes, he (and I) monitor it quite carefully, and the ABS light is triggered when the left rear is at 30 psi while the others are at 38 psi. It doesn't happen when the right rear is at 30 psi but the left is at 38. The dealer couldn't find anything wrong with the sensor, and because the light goes off, it doesn't leave any diagnostic codes behind.

The battery/alternator is definitely a good point. With my Volvo (S70), if I don't use it for a few weeks (which is often), the battery doesn't drain. With his, if it isn't used for two weeks, the battery drains. He hasn't been able to trace it yet. We've had this problem since he's bought the car. Usually he drives it every day, and we discovered it after a trip to Europe.

Bev

Reply to
Bev A. Kupf

I had a similar problem on my 1998 V70R, the ABS/TRACKS lights come on at random and stay on until I stop the engine, wait about a minute or so and start it again. I took it into a Volvo dealership and the diagnostic apparently said that I have a faulty brake sensor and that it'd cost about $900 to replace. Well, I thought I'd live with the faulty sensor.

-Chetty

Reply to
Chetty Ramanathan

Why not give all the sensors a good clean and see if that fixes your problem.

Cheers, Peter.

: > > Greetings all, : > >

: > > My ABS light on my '96 850 has come on, then gone off twice in the last : > > week. Each time it only stays on about 10 minutes or so, then goes back : > > out. : > > The owners manual says to take it to the dealer, but I was wondering if : > any : > > of you had nay comment on this issue. : > > The car has had regular service and good upkeep, it now has 115k miles on : > > it. : > > Thanks in advance for any oberservations.... : >

: >

Reply to
Peter Milnes

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