ABS light ..mot failed

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.

dogfox

New Member
Posts
43
My 1998 1.8 freelander failed its MOT today because the ABS light does not come on. ITs never come on as long as i have owned the it ( 3 year ) and it has always passed its MOT and always at the same MOT garage .. I told him you have passed it for the last 2 years .. he told me because of the new mot rules coming out he had to fail it ... where do i start? none of my warning lights come on and never have ( ABS HDC and TC ).. THere is a place in kilve somerset where i can have a brake diagostic for £50 + might go down that road ... will check out a few things first .. but how easy is it to take the dash display out .. check for bulbs or are they LED? and the switch on the gear stick ? is that easy to check?

TIA
 
Bulbs are easy to check.. Take dash apart to get to bulbs (see manual), and they are easily removable.. They just push into a hole! You must have some dash lights on your car that do work (battery/oil/SRS light) so just take one that you know is working out, and slot it into the ABS or HDC lights..

HOWEVER, i do feel this may be a slight waste of time, as all3 out sounds suspisious to me....1 maybe, but not 3....

Does your green HDC light come on when you push down the gearstick gater and pull the yellow switch?

Also, very early Base models didnt HAVE ABS.. but im presuming yours has?? If its got the yellow HDC trigger on the gearstick, it must have ABS...
 
yes.. have got battery,srs,oil,handbrake lights .. but none of ABS , TC , DHC .. not ever the green one when i pusn down on the switch on the gear stick
 
Does the HDC work? Even if theres no lights, have tried to see if it works going down a hill??

Your brake pedal should pulse for a second or two, then the hippo should keep at a constant speed of about 4 MPH..

If it does work, its probably your bulbs, if the HDC doesnt work, then its fooked.. and somebody before you has probasbly taken the bulbs out to hide a problem..

If The HDC is fooked, then you should have the "3 amigos" on orange HDC, green HDC and ABS.
 
Dont know if the HDC works ..i have never tried it and up until now it has not bothered me ...
 
update .. just took to displat dash out only to find the 4 bulbs have been removed amber TC , HDC , ABS .. and green HDC .. replaced them with some that worked and they all lit up when i turn the key ..the green HDC does go out after a few seconds .. but does not come on when i select HDC and when i went to test HDC nothing happened it was if i was driving normally ... well its going on a diagostic machine in the morning ..just hope its something simple to repair ..oh and i checked the HDC switch on the gear stick and the green wire was snapped off .. fixed it back in place ..made no diffence
 
update part 2.. well took it to get put on the computer and 4 faults showed up

shuttle valve switch long term failure

pwm signal failure from ecu

fault code not used

and rear left sensor output interimment

any way the bloke cleared the faults and charged me £60 and told me to get to the mot garage asap

got to the mot garage and he passed it ...
 
Glad to hear you got it sorted!

Sounds to me like the wire in the HDC trigger wire broke with the previous owner, and to hide the problem (rather than fixing it) he/she just pulled out all the bulbs.. Since HDC is rarely used by most people, youd never know the difference.

You repaired the wire (which was most likely the problem), but the ECU still probably needed resetting.. which youve now done (£60 :mad:)

If the problem was still there, then the next time you switched the ignition on, all of your bulbs would be staying on again..

So all's well that ends well!
 
More likely the shuttle valve fault was the one putting the lights on.These can be caused by a bad hair day,failing battery voltage on start up OR faulty shuttle valve switches.
The HDC switch wire being broken just stops it from working,unless one wire is unlucky enough to short on the body.
 
Back
Top