Mr McCabe

Tonight for some reason my ABS light came on and I lost my ABS function. Right now we are getting a big snow storm and there is a lot of snow already on the ground. I only lost my ABS for about 5 minutes. Anyone know why this happened?

Mr McCabe

Anyone???

Kwin

im not really sure but maybe the car thought you were better off with out it...maybe....i really dont know

Frankruffolo257

snow packed in the back of the brake rotor may have caused a loss of signal from the tone ring to the wheel speed sensor. Just a wild guess.

HackAbuse

The car is better without ABS anyway

68nova200

iTrader: (2)

just man it up and drive without it. heck my car doesnt even have ABS i am still alive after driving in two storms in the past week.

killah_thug08

i hate abs lol, first time i took my dads car out when i was 15 without him knowing i jammed the brakes and thought i broke something and parked beside the road till my dad came LOL

1_quick_balt

i hate abs!!!.... you can atleast control how so stop with out it... all abs does is make a funny noise and you have no control.... i learned and still drive a car with out abs...

Mr McCabe

Abs is great for wet road conditions but it REALLY blows in the winter!! I'd perfer to have no Abs but I don't want to be staring at the Abs light all the time either.

1_quick_balt

true.... that light would really annoy me too.....

killah_thug08

what is this ABS light and traction control thing people are speaking about on there display under the odometer? when my abs kicks in i see no light come on and i have never see my display say traction control or w.e

an0malous

ABS should be a toggled safety item IMO.

if you look around, there were some studies done a few years ago, that showed ABS systems on high traction roadways, decreased braking distance considerably. GREAT!!!

but they also showed that on loose driving conditions, like gravel, or snow,
your braking distance can actually be INCREASED up to like 20%

pretty messed up considering you cant turn it off.

HackAbuse

I've had both my t/c and abs disabled for over a year.

The car is SO much better without it

an0malous

i wouldnt disable it in the summer if i were you....
on pavement its been shown countless times, that a professional race driver without ABS cant stop a car sooner than a soccer mom who has it.

it really is a great system. just not so great on snow and gravel

also, tampering with a safety device can get you in some big trouble...

mlafran

I had the same thing happen right in the middle of that storm. Lost ABS, Service Traction warning, etc. Seemed like half the dash lights were on. My guess it was snow packed around a sensor. The wheel area was pretty clogged up and after driving a bit it cleared and I haven't seen the warning since. So I guess I'm not going to worry too much.

MTPockets

That's your most likely cause of something intermittent. A piece of snow/ice/dirt got lodged over the face of a wheel speed sensor and eventually got knocked off. Having driven in Buffalo winters all my life, I'd have to say this is where ABS really shines. You either have to manually pump the crap out of your brakes and white knuckle the hell out of it in a panic situation, or you will totally loose it and wreck. I'd rather just mash and steer on an ABS equipped vehicle. ABS It's nice on the ice & snow. Horrible elsewhere IMO. FWIW, my cheap azz Cobalt has no ABS.

roadrage06

mine is in the shop right now for this. it just randomly came on while i was driving the other night and was on and off periodically, then stayed off for the past week. i'll let you know the results, they are expecting it done today.

hawlyns711

iTrader: (2)

if you have good tires, keep your abs. but if you're like me and have bad tires, i pulled the abs fuse and i can stop considerably shorter in snow

MTPockets

A higher dollar code scanner will tell you exactly which wheel speed sensor the ABS system is getting funky readings from. No idea in on the Cobalt OBDII Controller Area Network (CAN) system, but on some regular OBDII GMs, all you had to do is jump pins 4 & 12 on the OBDII plug (Data Link Connector) and count the flashes of the ABS light to decode. Dealers love ABS jobs. Very easy money makers for them.

killah_thug08

so anyone can disable abs around winter season if they do not want it by just pulling a lil fuse? is the fuse under the hood or? explain more please

hawlyns711

iTrader: (2)

well i have a redline if that makes a difference, but there were 3 abs fuses under the hood in the fuse box, i pulled the biggest one (40 amp) and that did the trick

killah_thug08

and thats not gunna **** around with the electrical system or pcm or w.e?

hawlyns711

iTrader: (2)

i've been doing it for about 3 weeks now, no problems. only the abs light in the cluster is on, but you just gotta live with that. i' not telling you it's safe (for the risk of getting banned) but it works great

roadrage06

Ok, got my car back yesterday about the ABS light, and they could not find a reason or cause for it. All my sensors are fine. I told them about the information on this thread and they confirmed that snow build up near the wheel speed sensor is indeed the most likely cause of this during snowy conditions. There is probably nothing wrong with you brake system, it's just a result of the weather. Hope this helps.

MTPockets

Yep, you'll see this happen more often on vehicles that don't have much distance between the axle and the road. Less common on trucks, suvs, etc.