Sold Stanky's Celica - provisionally sold

[tobyd]

Dark was the day ABS sneaked in and snuffed out the candle that was pressure relief valves. It's dashboard light a poor and unwelcome facsimile.

 

yap. i'll bring my multimeter. I rek'n its a loose wire somewhere improbable.

[Stanky]

The new (to me) relay arrived yesterday, I didn't have time to do any fixerating last night after work but did have some time today in between mundane weekend errands to do some fixing.

 

Here is the new (left) next to the old relay, they have the same part number though the new one looks newer to me. i can't work out any date codes so lets just hope for the best shall we?

 

 

I opened up the little house the relays live in, gave it a squirt of contact cleaner for good measure and pushed the new relay into the socket. I really only wanted to do this once because getting them back out again is a miserable job, filled with broken plastic tangs and frayed nerves. The new one had the tangs still attached so the person who removed it was clearly more talented than I am (not hard TBH).

 

 

Next up was removing the instrument cluster again. Stupidly I'd refitted this all after the fiddling the other day but without the ABS warning light fitted, so I undid all the shrouds and stuff to get at the cluster again

 

 

Fitted the bulb into the ABS slot, reconnected the three multiplugs into the back of the binnacle then popped the bonnet to get at the diagnostic plug. I pulled out the bridging pin and plugged the AS approved 'diagnostic' paperclip in to bridge E1 and TC and then back into the driver seat.

 

Turn the key to position 2 and observe the flashing light of ultimate information. it goes on. It goes off. Then it flashed three times, pause, then two more. Long pause. three flashes, pause, two flashes. repeat. RIGHT Mo_FOs, thats just fixed 66% of my problems.

 

This means that the relay was indeed iffy, and the error code 31 was a false positive. I've fixed this by replacing the relay so its no longer 'open circuit' (code 11) and the ECU can talk to the clearly working ABS sensor in the right hand (drivers side) wheel hub (code 31). However this does mean that the passenger side (left) one is still sad (code 32) and needs cleaning or replacing. 

 

HOWEVER 

 

I got a bonus light for my troubles, the SRS/Airbag light decided it wanted to join in with the ABS light and started blinking away. Well that's annoying isn't it? Googling suggested very little as to the cause of this, but someone did posit that disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes might reset it. Here they are blinking in unison

 

 

Now, I'm no expert (I've not even got the 'novice' award yet) with automotive electrics, but I'm pretty sure that the very first post on the very first forum on the internet was from Benjamin Franklin asking why his Kite and Metal key contraption had a warning light on its dashboard, and Thomas Edison replied saying "Jus dizconnect the battery m8, that will deffo fix it LOL 100%" it didn't work then, and has never worked on any warning light on any electro-mechanical device ever since.

 

So, naturally I went and undid the negative terminal on the battery and fiddled around removing the foul tempered CD player, which still refuses to return the second CD of Top Gear Anthems 1 and also won't tune into any radio stations. I'm a sucker for shiny things but have a miserly budget so have splashed out* on one of those £29 double din touchscreen radio/MP3/AUX players from ebay to go in the dashboard instead. I'll review this when it arrives, my expectations are low, but TBH the current ICE situation means the bar is set very low for it to be considered an improvement. If more than one button works we're cooking with gas. 

 

Having done this and only lost one more bolt into the abyss of the centre console, I went to reconnect the battery to prove to myself that it'd never have worked and I'd have to play 'hunt the issue' with the SRS wiring too. Negative terminal reattached, I removed the diagnostic paperclip, put the jumper clip back into its normal house in the diagnostic port, popped its cover back on and slumped back into the driver seat.

 

Turn the key to position #2 and watch the lights. 

 

ABS light on. Airbag light on. Ha, I knew it wouldn't work, it never flipping works, I'm right and the internet is wron...

 

 

Wait, the airbag light has gone out? WTF?

 

Ok, lets try again, must be a one-off. 

 

Key back to position 1, then on to position 2 again. lights on, airbag light goes off again.

 

No way! For the first time since electricity was harnessed, the process of resetting an ecu fault code by disconnecting power from it for 10 minutes actually worked? Well I'll be damned.

 

So, in summary a second hand, £6 part has fixed 66% of my issues, given me one new one but which went away with a free fix. if that's not Autoshite then I don't know what is. I mean there is still a problem, but its less bad than it was, and now confined to one corner so its basically trapped, right?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

....now confined to one corner so its basically trapped, right?

 

For now. Unless it makes a run for it through your legs 

[spartacus]

I have a Hiace van that very occasionally throws up the EML and puts itself into limp mode when you start it. Disconnecting the battery for 30 secs resets it.

Kwalitee Toyota injuneering.

 

Can you not test the sensors with your multi meter, they should have a set value.

[tobyd]

wot e sed.

 

can you now take a good reading off the good side compare to bad side?

 

a relay thats pins fall off vs chasing wires on the wiring diagram is a win for ocham's razor.

[Stanky]

No, but I suspect you might be able to. Its definitely the passenger side one and i have the part number for the bit I think I need, its rather difficult to track down though so I'm hoping that a good clean up with contact cleaner might bring it back to life.

 

Yeah, its worked out better than i'd hoped to be honest, if my luck continues it might just magically self-heal and be fine, I suspect not but you never know. Apparently changing the sensor is relatively easy, but the old one almost always disintegrates as its being removed so I suspect getting a secondhand one may be difficult.

 

They do exist on US ebay for about £60 plus £25 shipping but thats a lot for a potentially knackered part and a whole wagon load of hassle to get it posted and returned if that is the case. I shall keep my eyes peeled. If anyone else can summon up a Front Left hand ABS speed sensor, part number 89543-20110 for a price under £150 I'm all ears. i might try Toyota direct in the week to see if they can at least source one.

[tobyd]

worth contacting an ebay breaker, looks like a few mid 90s units on there? 

 

contact cleaner the contacts, gently cleaner the sensor end with meths or something and the brake-cleaner the ABS ring and see if that improves things? 

[Stanky]

As i've said earlier, the ICE situation in the Celica is a bit fraught right now, with the (normally reliable) Sony XPLOD head unit turning on, tuning to 87.5fm and doing nothing else. It's also eaten one of my CDs which might be a higher power intervening because the CD its eaten is pretty crap TBH.

 

Anyway, as was mentioned somewhere else on here recently, who on earth would actually buy a £28 (delivered) touchscreen double-din headunit from China off ebay?

 

*puts hand up nervously*

 

Thats right folks, check this bad boy out.

 

 

It does all the things - bluetooth, USB, FM radio, AUX and will take a microSD/TF card. No GPS, thats extra. Here is the old one, sulking in the passenger footwell

 

 

Anyway, first up I had to pop out the surround of the centre console and take out the top din slot blanking plate. Why can't cars these days be more like this? sculpted dashboards with stereos that have to be coded in and out is a pain in the todger.

 

 

Next up, debox the new head unit.

 

 

 

12 valve, yeah?

 

Seems nice and compact, obviously not very deep because it doesn't accomodate CDs but not visibly broken. Lets plug it in.

 

Here it is trial fitted

 

 

What followed next is what can only be described as an almighty faff. The brackets that hold it in dont have holes in the right places really, so I had to grind off some of the extruded bits, shim the bolts that hold the brackets to the head unit with some washers and generally fiddle about a lot to get it to sit right* in the dash so i could get the centre console fascia to go back on right, but not obscure any of the (admittedly few) buttons. This took some while to achieve and still could be better, but by now, with the aerial and power/speaker connecters plugged in I was rewarded with this

 

 

I plugged a full size SD card connected to a USB multi-reader and it happily played music, the radio works, and actually picks up more stations than either of the other cars, all 4 speakers work, everything.

 

With it turned off its relatively inoffensive

 

 

The fit could be better, but it will do for now. What I really need is a proper full-depth cage for it, I might get around to that one day but its not going to be today. It works, actually it works better than I expected for £28, and looks alright.

 

I'd recommend one of these to anyone actually, we'll see how it does longer term.

 

In other news, the cambelt kit, harmonic balancer puller and ancilliary belts have all arrived, I'll set to with replacing all of them with Tobyd in a couple of weeks. That might be a marginally more interesting update to the thread.

 

 

[Stanky]

Quick update, the cheap-ass head unit is a bit crap. I know, shocking right?

 

it works fine most of the time, however it will cut out about once an hour. Sometimes more, sometimes less but if listening to the radio it just reboots and carries on as normal which is no real hardship. If you're listening to music on a SD card (or watching a film, I assume) it stutters then reboots and starts from a couple of songs back. I thought it was a corrupted mp3 but it can happen at any time it seems.

 

Overall its not terrible, but a bit iffy. Its not coming out because I've nothing to replace it with but it is a little bit annoying.

 

the sound and stuff is fine though.

[Supernaut]

I've always thought that touchscreen devices in car are a silly idea anyway.

 

Then add the fact it's a £28 dodgy bit of Chinese electronics and you have a party.

[holbeck]

Just catching up with this.

 

Wow. I was just going to drive it.

 

Respect for bottoming out some of the underlying maladies of this car.

[Stanky]

Respect for bottoming out some of the underlying maladies of this car.

 

Cambelt, water pump & aux belts next week then its just the ABS issue and everything is sorted. I love driving it though, its brilliant fun even with 'just' 115bhp on tap. The 180bhp GT one must be seriously rapid. The GT-Four looks terrifying!

[mat_the_cat]

Relays should have clear covers as it's quite satisfying watching them trip in and out. Or that might just be one my perversions?

 

Not just your perversion! An LED to signal that it's received a trigger is even more exciting though!

[Guest Hooli]

I've always thought that touchscreen devices in car are a silly idea anyway.

 

 

Agreed, utterly stupid idea that I'll never understand. Proper knobs & buttons are so much easier to use.

[Stanky]

After several updates relating to cosmetic fripperies, today I bring you news of actual proper spannering.

 

The main outstanding mechanical job hanging over the ownership experience was the cambelt, it was last changed 65,000 miles ago in the year of our lord 2003. The recommended interval for these is 60k (not a problem) or 5 years (yeah, ummm about that...). The saving grace is that these 7A-FE engines are non-interference but it did concern me that its was dramatically overdue and if it were to snap, it would definitely be at the least opportune moment.

 

I have never changed a cambelt, in fact, I have never even paid someone to change a cambelt for me. I have either played roulette until the car has been sold, or specifically sought out a car with a cam chain engine. So what better time to learn than a sweltering thursday and friday in July? Exactly. I was accompanied in this task by my far more mechancially accomplished brother tobyd of this parish, he of the motorbike fettling thread.

 

I'd bought a gates cambelt kit, and decided that since I was going to be in there anyway, got a NOS water pump and three auxilliary belts for the water pump, PAS pump and A/C compressor & Alternator circuits respectively. Total cost was a monumental £40.

 

Here is where we begin. 14:00 on thursday, air temp ~28c. Hydration level - adequate. engine status - complete

 

 

First step was to jack the car up, take off the drivers side wheel and undo the undertray to gain access to the gubbinz. I managed this with the only casualty being one undertray screw which sheared its head off. It will be missed.

 

 

We put in the jack, an axle stand and slid the wheel under the sill as additional backup stability.

 

Next up, start to strip it all down. The cambelt lives in a house composed from 3 plastic sections, held on at the top by the rocker cover. So the next step is to remove the rocker cover. 4 threaded nuts and it was loose. easy peasy.

 

 

In this shot, I've taken off the coil packs, taken the spark plugs out, and removed the top section of cambelt house from the left hand side of the engine. its remarkably clean in there.

 

This is the old cambelt fitted, its not cracked or particularly haggard looking, but it is a genuine Toyota one, so is certainly the 2003 belt and therefore very elderly.

 

Here we are fishing the spark plugs out the holes

 

 

With the rocker cover off, the next step is to remove the left-hand engine mount. first of all, we put a length of wood under the sump and carefully jacked it up to take the weight off the mount. Then remove the three studs that hold the engine mount to the front wing.

 

 

We were then confounded - the mount is 2 pieces, the one through the top was easy to under, but there are 2 nuts (fnarr) underneath the mount, I had a 3/8" extension bar which was long enough to reach from inside the wheelarch, but my 3/8" 14mm socket was knackered. I had a 1/2" 14mm socket which was really good, but the 1/2" extension bar was too short to reach. Urgh. FFS.

 

So we decided to set off to Halfords in search of one fo the following:

 

- 1/2" extension bar

- 3/8" 14mm hex socket

- 3/8" female to 1/2" male adapter

 

As we set off in the car, I thought that maybe the local hardware shop might have one of these. Its a funny place, and probably expensive but since it was on the way it was worth a go. It also saved an hours drive there and back, and time was of the essence. The local hardware shop came up trumps - they had a 1/2" extra-long extension bar, though it was £11. I'll probably use it again. It probably wouldn't be much cheaper at Halfords and saved us 40 minutes driving.

 

With this equipped, the underneath nuts (quiet at the back!) were easy to remove, and we were in progress once more

 

Next up, we removed the old aux belts. Two of them were in a bit of a state, the alternator belt was more recent, but changed out for peace of mind. Here is is with the engine mount removed, and the belts off

 

 

the next few steps you'll have to imagine, it was flipping hot, we were both mainlining squash like mad and sweating it out just as quick and it was really fiddly.

 

Oh, and I went and collected Castros_bro from the station to collect the 206cc too!

 

Then, we took off the alternator and AC compressor, the compressor bracket and took off the water pump pulley. this is a stupidly fiddly job with bugger all access but we managed it in the end with some ring spanners and a plumbers wrench. This gave us all the access we needed. Well, it gave us all the access we could have, it was still somewhat 'snug' shall we say between the belts and inner wing.

 

Next up we took off all the cambelt housing, undid the crank pulley - this was a complete breeze with the impact gun - and slackened off the cambelt tensioner. We'd aligned the timing marks carefully before doing this, but there is no locking mechanisms. You just have to make sure it all stays aligned and fine tune when doing it all back up.

 

With the belt de-tensioned, we took off the tensioner hook, and then eased it out, along with the cambelt itself. Hooray! 50% there. Well, sort of.

 

It had started to cool down a bit by this point, we'd drunk our own bodyweight in weak squash and hadn't been for a wee since mid-morning so ploughed on.

 

this is where the back-and-forth started. We refitted the new cambelt and tensioner. Getting the spring on was a horrible job, there is no access and its a really stiff spring. The process was revolutionised when I found an old bent bit of coathanger with a tight u-shaped section on one end. This was absolutely perfect to hook over the spring end, pull it towards the front of the car and hook it onto the extrusion that it should live on to provide the tension on the belt.

 

with this back on, we refitted the bottom pulley and were confounded once again. in the course of jiggling the belt on and applying tension, the timing mark had moved from the zero mark on the bottom pulley to 10 degrees. bother. I bit of lateral thinking lead us to get a socket and bar on the bottom pulley, tuning it carefully until it aligned with the zero. This knocked the cam timing out at the top end, but we were able to unhook the tensioner spring, ease the belt off the cam sprocket, turn the cam sprocket back a tooth to make it align with the top timing mark, slide the belt back onto the cam sprocket with the timing marks top and bottom carefully checked and the re-tension the belt.

 

what a kerfuffle! It worked though, and the belt was on, tensioned and the timing correct. Hooray! Next up, the water pump.

 

As has been mentioned many times before, I am a silly boy. The cambelt does not run the water pump, like in a lot of cars, however this doesn't mean you can actually replace the water pump with the cam belt in situ. You can unbolt it, but there isn't enough room to get it out with the cambelt in place. Fiddlesticks.

 

At this point we gave up for the night, we were both tired, hot sweaty, grubby and in need of beer.

 

This morning, refreshed by several pints in the pub the night before and too-hot nights sleep we got stuck in properly. Mercifully it was cooler this morning and cloudy.

 

First of all we drained the coolant down. Toyota were really good and the rad has a tap in it that you can use to drain it all in a nice tidy way, rather the pulling the bottom hose and getting coolant everywhere.

 

The water pump was wiggled expertly free without pulling the cambelt off for a third time, but there was no way we could get the new one in without ripping the gasket to pieces. Frustratingly, this meant the cambelt and tensioner did indeed need to came off AGAIN. Urgh. Oh well, at least we know what we're doing now. Bottom pulley off, tensioner detensioned with the hookity-hook, belt slid off the sprockets and a clear run to the housing. Here we are with the belt almost off for the third time

 

 

The water pump housing is visible in the bottom left, nice and shiny and cleaned up with a rag.

 

In a fit of cleverness (more on this later) I bolted the pulley to the new water pump before fitting, then with some VERY careful manouvring the new water pump was moved into place, and the gasket slid into the gap. We then carefully put the water pump bolts in, making sure the gasket was kept flat throughout. Here it is in roughly the right place, before the gasket was inserted

 

 

Next, we tightened it all up, refitted the cambelt for the FOURTH time, re-tensioned it, made sure the timing marks were still correct (they were, this time) and started putting the aux belts on. First up, the littlest belt from the water pump pulley to the PAS pump. It was a bit tight, but we managed to line it up and wind it on by turning the water pump pulley by hand. Easy.

 

Then, we bolted on the A/C compressor bracket, and the AC Compressor. This weighs a flipping tonne and doesn't actually work, so is basically hassle and dead weight but the belt is for the A/C equipped car so lets put it back on, eh? hahaha no. not even nearly. This is how it looked

 

 

The belt wasn't going onto the respective pulleys and being wound on like the first one. No chance. There is a pulley that goes between the crank pulley and compressor pulley which should tension it, but this was totally seized. helpfully we noticed this having fitted all these parts. bumhats. Off with the compressor and bracket again. Urgh! We deployed the impact gun to undo the tensioner bolt, took the tensioner off and used a drill to clean up and grease the slider bit. Adjustment was restored, so we refitted the bracket again, and then the compressor. This time, the belt went on really easily, and we then carefully wound out the adjuster to tension the belt properly.

 

Next, refitting the alternator. We sanded down the pivoting bit because it was very stiff coming off, gave it a slip of grease and losely fitted it. There is an adjuster that goes underneath, but you have to fit it totally blind. My fingers had lost several layers of skin by this point and were somewhat tender so this bit hurt! We got it on though, looped the alternator belt onto the crank pulley and alternator then wound out the adjuster to tension the belt. Then did up the pivot bolt tight.

 

 

Serious progress, with the end in sight!

 

You know what i was saying about the water pump pulley earlier? Yeah, it was a silly idea to do it up, in order to get the middle part of the housing on top of the cambelt, you need it off (though still held captive because there isn't enough room to get it out between the end of the water pump spindle and the inner wing). So off it came again, getting it undone was easy, 4 weenie bolts hold it on. We fitted the middle bit of cambelt housing and then had to wiggle in the pulley bolts back in, what a sod of a job! Toby who is over 76% less fat handed than I am managed to get them to bite, and I wound them on with a ring spanner.

 

Then we refitted the engine mount, tightened it up from above and below and withdrew the jack under the sump. The engine didn't fall out the bottom.

 

Next up, the final stages - we fitted the top bit of plastic housing and tightened it up, the refitted the rocker cover. I got the hylomar out to help it seal but it had all solidified completely so that was a non-starter. we cleaned up the rubber gasket and hoped for the best. it isn't the worst thing in the world if it weeps, it'll be easily visible and can be replaced easily enough if it does weep.

 

We refitted the wiring to the alternator over the top of the rocker cover, refitted the spark plugs and coil packs, plugged the alternator multiplug back in and it looked like this

 

 

I used the impact gun to do up the crank pulley bolt.

 

Then we refilled the rad with deionised water and had a good look around for leftover parts. There were none, so we thought this must be a good thing. Down off the jack it came, with the wheel refitted and undertray re-attached and then for the moment of truth. Had we timed it right? We'd wound it over several times on the crank pulley and there had been no jamming, stiff spots (I said quiet at the back!) or other untoward things so here we go......

 

Turned the key and BROOM! it burst into life and settled into a nice steady idle.

 

BOOM Mo_Fo's - it worked! We didn't screw it all up and break the engine. No leaks, no leftovers, just a functioning engine.

 

We left it to run up to temperature to circulate the water and flush out the old coolant, then left it to cool down again. re-drained it and topped back up with ECP's 5-year pink coolant mixed 60:40 with de-ionised water on the basis there'd be a bit of mostly water left in the cylinder head so should work out about 50:50 once that mixes up.

 

Then we took it out for a ride. We put about 40 miles on it, mixed driving up the A32, across the A272 and back home on the A3 and M27. temperature astayed constant, nothing fell off or blew up. Great Success! here it is after cooling down, with new pump and belts visible

 

 

I'm really pleased, this is the first time either of us have undertaken a cambelt change and other than some n00b mistakes with doing things in the right order and clearance for certain parts it all went surprisingly well. I definitely couldn't have done it without Toby's help, but like to think I did bring at least something to the party!

 

I hope you enjoy reading this stuff, I certainly enjoyed doing it and its now good for another 60k, or based on the last one - 15 years!

 

 

 

 

[loserone]

Complete winner

[spartacus]

Nice write up Stanky, congratulations on the cam belt success, it's obvious from the work you're putting in that you've bonded with this car.

[320touring]

Nicely done, and top stuff not getting to the "Gallon of optimax and a match" stage with all the cambelt hokey cokey:)

[mitsisigma01]

Good work .... 5 numbers please !

[dome]

Good work!

[davehedgehog31]

Great write up, admirable perseverance too.

[Isaac Hunt]

Well done chaps, I always consider cambelting to be a job up the scale on house compared to oil and filters and brake pads.

 

Good tip, once you have access to the belt (only works if you don't need to do water pumps etc that need the belt off and out of the way) is to refit botttom pLilly and turn engine over slicing belt longdituonally with a knife.

 

Remove pulley and slide the outside bit of belt off. Fit new belt onto the 5o% of visible pulley, then cut the remaining remanents of old belt off. Push new belt fully home.

 

Even if you do then need to remove for access, you can Dab your tipex marks from the pulley to the new belt so that you know the alignment is all good. I like the coloured tyre paint pens for dabbing, red, yellow, blue and green, Joseph's been here it can be clearly seen.

[Stanky]

I did consider it, but we needed to get the tensioner off to be replaced too, and in order to get at it, you have to remove the belt so it all has to be done at once.

 

the timing mark for the crank is on the pulley, so you have to fit the belt, tension it, then attach the pulley and make sure its pointing at the zero mark. its a bit fiddly but I reckon if I did it again we could do it a lot quicker, now we know the order it all goes in.

 

I'll take it out for another run in a bit.

[Stanky]

500 miles down post cambelt change and its all still working at Toyota intended. On full lock first thing there is sometimes a little chirrup from the PAS belt but that goes away when warmed up even slightly so might just be the belt bedding in. There isn't any adjustment on that belt run so its going to have to sort itself. Otherwise all is well.

 

Today I woke up early to get stuck into some more investigation of exactly what is wrong with the front left (passenger) side ABS sensor which is causing the light to stay on.

 

Usual drill, steering on hard lock, jack up car, remove wheel

 

 

The wiring looked OK to me, no chafing to speak of and no obvious breaks. Next up lean round the back of the hub to have a look at the sensor

 

 

A bit mucky, but intact. It attaches with a 10mm bolt. This was removed carefully and a bit of copper grease painted on the threads for reassembly. The sensor was very much stuck in its hole so gentle tapping with a metal bar and gentle prising with a pocket knife had it release its grip

 

 

Err, I don't think its supposed to look like that is it?

 

Time to deploy the 'advanced' toolkit

 

 

First of all I cleaned up the hole in the hub that it mounts to. This was pretty rusty. This is post-wire brushing and cleaning with contact cleaner and a rag and some sandpaper

 

 

Next, a gentle clean of the sensor with some old cotton pyjamas and contact cleaner

 

 

That looks a bit better doesn't it? rusty ming cleaned off the magnetic endy bit, encrusted rust flakes cleaned off from around the bolt flange and generally cleaner. I checked in the hole to see how grim the ABS ring looked but its not in bad shape from what I can see. The pic is awful as its a very difficult angle but you can see the ring is shiny with no real muck to speak of

 

 

bolted the sensor back in place, refitted the wheel, let it down off the jack and sat in the driver seat. Key in ignition, turn to position 1, did the ABS light go out? No, it didn't. FFS.

 

Right, paperclip diagnostics time. repeated the jumper trick and it was still flashing up the 3-2 code indicating a problem with the LHS sensor. Since the wiring (as far as I can see) is undamaged, the sensor head is clean and the ABS ring isn't obviously broken, as well as it flagging up as a problem before the car has turned a wheel, I think the issue is the sensor itself and I'm going to have to source a new sensor.

 

I took it for a run and cracked 50mph (why is it when you just need to top 50mph you always get stuck behind a learner clearly on their first driving lesson ever, and then an OAP doing 3.7mph in a national speedlimit?) and the light remains on.

 

grrr.

 

 

[The Moog]

Did you check the ring on the driveshaft? Often the reluctator ring can crack and give issues.

[Stanky]

I spun it round by hand, peering through the hole the sensor lives in and it looked intact to me. If it was cracked, I;d expect the ABS light to have gone off, and only come on once the wheels move as it'd be telling the ECU that there is a weird reading. The issue seems to be that the ECU can't talk to the sensor at all, bringing the light on right away.

 

Or is my logic all wrong?

 

I've been out again to check the wiring at the top of the ABS sensor loom where it connects to the 'main' section of the loom that goes to the ABS ECU. I unplugged it, sprayed with contact cleaner and reconnected but to no avail.

 

There is a LHS sensor on ebay currently that I'm tempted by, however (now I've reassembled it all) an idea occurred to me. Where the sensor wiring connects to the main ABS loom there are 2 wires. Would it be massively naive to test for continuity here? I'm trying to work out if the issue is in the wire from hub to main loom (the ABS sensor bit) which is relatively easy to replace, at a cost; or is the issue upstream of this - i.e. in the main loom that goes from wheel sensor to ABS ECU which will be a total biatch to fix.

 

So if I put a multimeter into continuity mode and connect it to the two wires on the sensor wiring side and it shows continuity then the sensor is OK. If its not showing continuity then the problem is in the sensor wiring despite no breaks being visible? likewise on the loom to the ECU, I need to test for continuity to see if the wiring from sensor connection to ECU is intact?

 

Or am I looking at this wrong?

[dome]

That's how I sussed out my Civics duff abs sensor-there was no resistance at all from it.

 

A new sensor was about £12 from eBay so it was a cheap fix

[Stanky]

So the rationale is sound? There needs to be continuity and some resistance in the wiring of the ABS sensor section? if no, the sensor is bad. If yes, its somewhere upstream?

 

2nd hand sensor is £50 on ebay. New ones are available at Toyota for £170+VAT.

 

I want to be ABSOLUTELTY sure before I commit to a new sensor!

[dome]

I got lucky-I had the hub off the car to get a ball joint pressed in and the next thing on my list was trace the abs fault. I started with the sensor I had off the car and it showed no resistance.

 

Toyota dealer prices can be ludicrous, get googling!

[tobyd]

You could also test the otherside and compare resistances, continuity and whatnot as a benchmark.