Diagnostic time

tigerknight

Registered User
The ABS light on my 95 sc automatic won't shut off. It was on when I got the car, it had been on for a year before that according to the previous owner but since the poor thing could still stop he just ignored it.

Anyway, I've redone the brakes (front calipers and pads), checked fluid levels, checked fuses, and done all the at home type work I can do (that I know of). I was thinking maybe that bad brakes (they were unevenly worn) might trigger the abs light to register and when they were done the code was not cleared from the system. This is just my theory, which may or may not hold water since I really have no clue other than noticing that other parts of the car work like that (transmission, notably).

So I asked about what it would take to take a look at it, just to read the code so I had a better idea of what's going on, and was quoted $125 - just to plug into it. Does this seem normal to anyone? Is there some home-kit I can get for $50 at kragen or something, or maybe someone in SF-bay area wouldn't mind helping me out if they have whatever it is that can hook up to the car and find out what's tossing that light?

This car went from 5800, to 5500 bargained down because of brakes, and is now well on it's way to 7000 in repairs so far on brakes and other misc stuff. I won't dare argue that the car isn't worth the effort, but I have to admit that my budget is dry as a bone right now and I worry about the reliability of the car when a service light is on like that.
 
Hello, tigerknight.

I was talking with a buddy today and something along these lines came up. He told me that sometimes if your rear tires are not the same diameter as the front tires, that this may throw codes. Just a thought and I may be way out there on this.

At any rate, good luck with your problem.
 
I need to move to SF-Bay Area

Man this sucks, I have a shop, and a 1500.00 snap on scanner. If you bring the car to me, and just want to code pulled 25.00 bucks, if you decide to fix it - no charge for pulling to code. I'm in the wrong area.
Check around this board there may be away to pull the codes using the jumper wire method. I looked it up and ford does not show away to do this, but these guys around here are really creative sometimes just ask.
125.00 is to steep for me.

Check the toner rings, the metal ring on the rear half shafts, and on the front hubs, look to see if they are cracked, spin them slowly while looking at each one, sometimes you'll see a crack in between the teeth. If you you need to replace the toner ring, pretty easy to do just let me know if this is what's wrong I'll email you the info on how to fix it.

It is most likely a wheel speed which when you figure out which one it is will be an easy fix.

Good luck
Tim
 
Tim, I agree with you.

At one point before I sold it, My 95 LX had a rough idle. My neighbor happened to have a scanner he bought for I think $200 and we connected it to the port on the passenger side under the glove box. It read an EGR problem as I recall and with the scanner we cleared the code and no more problems. I just looked at my Haynes and Chilton manuals and for the newer EEC-V system it states a special "tool" is required to read the codes. One manual doesn't even have the newer codes since you can't retrieve them easily anyway. I remember my mechanic telling me that a while back the Ford company wouldn't even let them have the codes meanings thus making his services useless for newer car's customers. That just kicks out the middle man and over proprietorizes the dealer's hold on cars. That isn't right, in my opinion. A code scanner should just be part of the car when you buy it if they are going to be that way about it. But of course that eliminates the need of aftermarket Autozone scanners. It would appear that buying an aftermarket scanner for a newer SC would be the thing to do I guess.

Sorry, my late night ranting is over. I wish you luck, tigerknight, I wish I could help you more.

Have a great week.
 
tbirdsc35th

Unforunatly it more the epa than ford. Ford doesn't really care if we work on our cars or not, they love people like us. Let face it most of us really like our cars, and most of us go out of our way to keep them nice, and if it comes down to it, 95% of us would and will pay more for a ford part than an aftermarket one. Just because it is a Ford part.
The epa would rather have a drivability tech work on codes and the like because there isn't as much of a chance that a tech would GUT the converters and do naughty stuff like that. Rather than just put new ones on it.
Personally as a tech, I pull the codes and it says it needs cats, and I tell you can you say, just gut them, I'm not going to do it, the epa can fine me 40,000 for each time I do something like that, quess what you're going home with cats on your car.
A owner may be more likely to just ram an extension through the catylist and bolt the exhuast back together. Which happens all of the time.

I agree with you however, this stuff should be more available to anyone who needs it. Foruntaly SCCOA, is helping the MN12 platform attain that goal. Between all of us someone got to know what were doing.

Tim
:cool:
 
The repair manual I often consult (fat thick blue book at the library) states that you need a star break out box to pull codes for the ABS. However, every problem I've ever had with ABS and ARC I've been able to resolve without needing to pull codes.

Does anyone know if its possible to do this without a special tool?

On the subject of CATS, how do you gut the cats and still pass emissions?
 
Back
Top