ANTI LOCK warning Light 94 9000CS

I couldn't figure what the fault was on my '91 9000, but I had the same issue - ABS fail light = MOT fail.

I removed the bulb from the instrument panel, IIRC. Seem to remember I couldn't do it any other way.

HTH Julian

I'm not making a value judgement here, but I want to fully understand. Is it the purpose of these vehicle inspections to get the owners to disable warning lights telling them that a safety feature has failed? How is it handled when the car is traded in to a dealer and/or sold to someone else? Doesn't the inspector run the car through the lamp test cycle to make sure the bulbs haven't burned out or were removed? If they did, wouldn't that cause the car to fail the test or do they assume that if the car doesn't have an ABS lamp that it is not equipped with ABS?

Sorry if my questions seem silly, but we don't have vehicle safety inspections where I live, just emissions inspections and most cars in the state (Illinois) are exempt from this inspection too (but not my Saab).

Walt Kienzle

So the next time when your "check engine"-light comes on you won´t worry, take out the lamp and the engine hopefully keeps running?!? Quite courageous since there is normally a reason for a lamp to come on.

The ABS-light is also enlighting with the ignition on an pulling the appropriate fuse for ABS. Since loosing the electricity is a fault for the system it stays on and in the memory. It has to be resetted by a technician - takes five minutes and if that was the problem you´re done. If the light comes back on you should have checked it from a saab dealer unless you have a minimum of half decent knowledge in electronics (at least I wouldn´t do much although I do almost any repair on my car on my own).

Greets Dieter

Hi Walt

Not a silly question at all. I was faced with spending a significant amount of money to diagnose & repair a fault on a car worth very little (a '91 9000 with 180k miles!). I also took the informed, value decision that ABS was not a fundamental safety component, like (say) a worn steering component. I have driven for decades without ABS, so I felt quilified to make that decision. YMMV.

So, write the car off for the failure of a peripheral part, spend a fortune repairing said part, or simply disable the feature?

If ABS was not fitted, it's absence does not cause a failure in the test, It's like foglights - if they are fitted, they must work correctly. If they are not, this part of the test is ignored.

Cheers Julian