1990 SSE ABS LIGHT ALWAYS COMES ON
 

Does anyone know why everytime I tap my brakes the brake light and the ABs light come on. This has been going on for over a year, kinda annoying. As well I started to notice on cold starts if I put it into drive to early there are no brakes, the brakes go very hard and I have to stomp on them to get the car to slow down. Eventually the pressure builds up and they start to work. I understand that the ABS units on these cars are flakey.

thats what was happenin with mine when my dad had it. the abs ended up locking up and we had to have the whole thing converted over to non abs and its been fine ever since has a lttle leak but i can live whith it

i hear u ,,mine is currently on.. have not had time to get a code..
it was suggested to me,, maybe a speed sensor.. perhaps a bearing.. but no noise so I dont think so... could even be a dirty connection..

brake
 

Its best to read the codes first and go from there. Sounds like there is a pump problem as well as a computer / sensor error.

personally i would just swap over to non abs because the abs units are pretty expensive and full of hassles

i must have ghosts in my car.. no abs light for the last 3 days ..
same driving as usual.

abs
 

Sometimes its a bad wire or dirty connector that will act up on humid days.

in my case it must be..
light went off for 3 days.. gets humid again.. comes on.
i get it scanned today.. NO CODES...

Do you ever have the brakes go hard on you while under heavy braking?

nope not at all..
had my breaks inspected by midas. told me should get em serviced before the snow files
total service of course.. pads , rotors , shoes , drums..
but nothing serious right now.

Do the guys at Midas know anything about these cars other than how to take a wheel off?

If both the ABS and Brake light are illuminating when you apply the brakes, you have a problem which could lead to a serious safety issue. the Teves electro-mechanical system in your car operates much differently than a conventional vacuum assisted braking system.

For those that wish to learn all about the Teves system, they need only to search for "Teves" and author "padgett" (check "Display results as" [posts] ). I would consider him the foremost authority of the Teves system on this board. Although we don't hear from him too often anymore, he has left much information about these braking systems.


For a more direct answer, I would suspect a failing pump or accumulator. Brake assist comes from the pump, providing pressure, to the accumulator which stores this pressure for use when the brake pedal is depressed. The accumulator is said to have a finite life span which lasts about 10-12 years and I can't see any reason that the pump would last any longer without some kind of service.

Basically this is how it works. That ball on the top (Accumulator) has a couple thousand psi of air in it, and it discharges when you push the brakes and recharges when the pump turns on. When the car is sitting overnight the accumulator leaks down, some worse than others, and then the next day the accumulator is empty so it cant assist the brakes so they go hard until the pump can repressurize the accumulator. There are 3 conditions in which the pump and warning lights work.
1. Accumulator drops in pressure a little bit, the pump turns on to recharge.
2. Accumulator drops in pressure more, which turns on the pump AND turns on the yellow ABS light.
3. Pressure drops a lot which turns the pump on, AND the yellow ABS light, AND the red brake warning light.

If your yellow and red lights are going on when you push the brakes it might be because the pressure is either lower than it should be, or it uses a lot more pressure than it should to activate the brakes.
This is one possible cause of your problem. It happened to my car when the pump died.

so i take the car to the mechanic where i purchaed it ..
he hooks up scanner..

NO CODES at all . none , nada zilch.

so sinnces we arer talkinn abbout the abbs there is oe hing that i would like to mention. yesterday i took mmy calibers off tryinn to clean everythinng off in there cause it mmade a sounnd like rust flyinn arounnd inn there. when i got downn to mmy wheel bbearinng i realized sommethinn..... the part of the wheel bearin that is used by the abs was broken off and all rusted

That light could me so many different things, your best of to take it to a shop so that they can tell you lol,

ABS
 

That abs wheel ring if missing will make the brakes pulsate as the computer will think the wheel if locked with no signal to it.