Good news!!!! Brakes are working and working flawlessly per your established baseline. Had a bit of fun while bleeding with the factory alarm system as my helper was getting annoyed with the buzzer when the ignition is first turned on. So I thought I'd be kind and disconnect the speaker in the passenger footwell. Well this caused all sorts of strange electrical phenomena but in the end I was able to find the box and remove all that junk from the car. One oddity was an oscillation of the ABS pump. While bleeding, it happened twice where it would click on and off repeatedly causing the pump to shake in its mount. I'm hoping this was due to a low battery but will keep an eye on it.

Now, the last issue remaining is the ABS light. I believe it is supposed to come on during system startup, however, mine does not illuminate under any circumstance. If the bulb is out, there should be a warning on the dash at all times to indicate a burned out warning light, correct? When I switch the exterior lights on, I do get the warning light for a bulb failure but I believe that only illuminates for exterior lights. In my case, I think it's for the fog lamps as I have those removed from the car and all other lights are working.

I should also note that I have yet to check out the operation of the ABS system. The ABS module has been rewired and the solenoids are working properly.

 

There is no dash warning light to show if another dash warning light is out. The bulb out light only tells you if a sidelight or a brake light is out.

 

John,

As Greg has mentioned, when you turn on the sidelights, the bulb failure warning light only relates to the front and rear sidelights. And if any of the warning bulbs are removed, the car isn't clever enough to know.that. If you've run the 32 ABS continuity checks, I would pull the instrument cluster and check the bulb.

Good luck

Paul

 

Which is easy to do, as all you have to do is to remove the coloured strip that goes over the warning light row. Prise off the plastic corner pieces each end, and undo the two screws you see, off comes the strip and you can pull the bulb.

 

Cheers! I was wanting to remove the entire cluster to give it a clean but may do this to check if the ABS lamp is on as I'm experiencing what may be a wheel speed sensor issue. Does the ABS ECU take vehicle speed into account when applying a pulse signal to the brakes? If the voltage is out of a set range or there is a fault with the wheel speed sensor, does the ABS lamp illuminate?

Backstory is, I replaced my front calipers as the seals were shot and now, when applying the brakes and coming to a stop, I can feel the brakes pulsing at a frequency of about 1Hz. Is that about how fast the ABS actuates in this car? I've done all the continuity checks except to checkout the wheel speed sensors but am curious if this is even the ABS system or perhaps warped rotors?

Also, how much of a pain is it to replace the rear calipers on the car? Or is dropping the IRS going to be my winter project?

Thanks all for the help of getting me to this point

 

John,

Try doing a blink test and see if you're getting one of the 3x series of codes, which could allude to continuity / integrity problems on one of the wheel sensors.

Paul

 

This blinks the ABS lamp correct?

 

Yes, that's correct