03 Abs Light - Poss Module Failure?

[Billy Coons]

Have an ABS light, and the local Viper tech hooked up a scanner to check it. Cleared the alerts, started the car, and it came up with a right rear wheel sensor alert and also simultaneous front wheel alerts. Cleared the alerts again, and now it won't even communicate with the ABS module.

Tech believes the ABS module is bad, but knowing I am a VCA member, told me it wouldn't hurt to see if anyone else has had this problem, and/or concurs with his assessment. Doesn't want the Dealer to bite the cost of the module if it doesn't fix the problem.

I'm sure I'm out of my standard warranty period by a few months at least. Would it be a stretch for me to ask the dealer to communicate with Dodge for a replacement under warrany since the car has only 17k miles?

If not, anyone know who has the best price on right rear wheel ABS sensor, ABS module, and 4 tire pressure sensors (2 are currently bad)? Thanks!

 

[GR8_ASP]

If it says the sensor, and a sensor is only $10 or $20 why not replace it first. Changing out the ABS module when the information points to the much cheaper sensor does not seem to make sense.

Note I had the right rear sensor fail myself. You did not mention what the first reading was. Or did he clear it without really checking? Was it driven between checks? A good tech can evaluate this quite easily. I could also but you are too far away (plus it is freaking cold here).

 

[Billy Coons]

If it says the sensor, and a sensor is only $10 or $20 why not replace it first. Changing out the ABS module when the information points to the much cheaper sensor does not seem to make sense.

Note I had the right rear sensor fail myself. You did not mention what the first reading was. Or did he clear it without really checking? Was it driven between checks? A good tech can evaluate this quite easily. I could also but you are too far away (plus it is freaking cold here).

It was the same faults when I brought it in before he cleared it as it was after he cleared it the first time.

The right wheel sensor is about $70 and I'm pretty sure we'll replace that first. His concern is that when you have not only multiple wheels alerting at the same time when the car starts, but when the scanner finally isn't able to communicate with the module, he's pretty sure it's the module.

 

[GR8_ASP]

If he did not drive it in between it would have a difficult time restting the fault as it needs to see a difference. Hopefully he did not just spins the wheels on the lift as that is a sure way to create a fault.
If the sensor cost is of concern just swap left and right sides and see what happens. Regarding th esensor cost I would check with Tator. The cost you mention seems awfully high to me.

 

[Billy Coons]

If he did not drive it in between it would have a difficult time restting the fault as it needs to see a difference. Hopefully he did not just spins the wheels on the lift as that is a sure way to create a fault.
If the sensor cost is of concern just swap left and right sides and see what happens. Regarding th esensor cost I would check with Tator. The cost you mention seems awfully high to me.

After drove the car in, he checked the faults. He then cleared the faults the first time in preps for a test drive.

As I started the car after he cleared them the first time, the light popped right back up. We still went for our ride.

Came back to the shop, shut off the car, cleared the alarms for a second time. Then after the 2nd clearing, the scanner had no communications with the module.

 

[Roadrunner]

I'd be wary about replacing the ABS module unless you have also lost the speedometer... The ABS module reads the four corner sensors to determine vehicle speed. Actually it only uses the rear sensors for speedo, and all four for ABS function.

If the speedo is working that indicates that the ABS module is functional at some level. Make sure the dealer is using a DRB III scan tool to read the ABS... he should then be able to see the individual corner speeds... if one or more of the corners is "dead" it will either read zero or intermittent speeds different than the others. Just replace that sensor then... if the sensor is not the problem, each sensor has an individual wire going to the ABS module that should be checked.