djantlive

It sounds electronic. I would change the abs relay as the relays on the car all go bad at this point.

zerokreap

Really? It was my understanding that the speed reading comes from the front driver's side.

zerokreap

Follow-up on my original post: It was the easiest fix in the world (fingers crossed)!!

Took a tip from a fellow Rennlister and simply replaced the ABS relay. That fixed the problem. Interestingly, the relay I replaced was testing as good. However, the person that provided the tip mentioned that it could be in the process of failing. I didn't even know that was an option. I figured a relay was either good or bad. Can anyone explain what happens as the relay is failing, but still testing as good?

Cheers, and thanks everyone for their ideas!

regajohn

glad you finally got it fixed. I was going to say I had that same problem where my Speedo and ABS would go dead, and it ended up being one of the relays in the fuse box.

jsheiry

Nice job staying after it! Relays are electro-mechanical devices and not solid state. The have coils with moving parts that get corrosion and then dont move so well. They start to heat up the more the corrosion is prevalent and the combination over time of working harder and harder they fail. The contacts in the relays also get pitted from arcing much like the contacts in a set of points and after much time the contacts can also fail even if the coil is causing proper movement. Some people will even open up the relays and clean the contacts if they are really expensive and see if that solves the problem.

zerokreap

That's good to know. I actually replaced the DME relay at the same time. I used one of those newer solid state ones. I followed up with my local shop to tell them the problem had been fixed. They seemed very surprised, as they tested the relay by installing a known good. So now I am wondering if the new DME relay played a part in all of this, since the DME is also playing a part in the ABS. Interestingly, my car had been having intermittent problems with starting. I had a spare DME in my glove box, in case it ever didn't start completely, but had not made the move to change it. What do you think, could the new DME relay have helped with this?

jsheiry

Im not sure on that as I have not studied all that the DME relay does but my limited understanding suggests it more about power to the fuel pump and power to the main DME computer/controller. I suppose that the DME computer/controller also interfaces with the ABS module and so forth so ultimately if the DME relay was bad/sketchy maybe proper voltages/grounds were not getting to the DME computer/controller and manifesting as intermittent issues with starting and the ABS module but thats pure speculation at this point. Im just about to get a little more invested in understanding why, where, what on the DME relay as I have a condition on this wrecked car Im fooling with where the DME relay buzzes after turning the motor off. If I pull the DME relay and re-insert into fuse block it stops, but after starting up motor and then running for short period then turning off the DME buzzes faintly... We will see....

Did your indie shop sort out your balance shaft issue ? And what did they do or had they done to cause it ?

zerokreap

The shop did tell me that the signal for the wheel sensor was being lost between the DME and ABS module, so perhaps the DME relay was the cause?

Yes, they fixed the issue with the timing...and it was the balance shaft timing that was out. After my original post I decided to write the shop owner and ask that he step in on the job to help. He did (over the holidays no less, which I thought was really cool of him). Together they got the shaft back in time. They also did a leakdown free of charge...let me know that everything was under 10%. I'm guessing they did that just to make sure the timing issue had not caused any damage?