ABS light on when hot?

[Luis]

Hello again all. I’ve another question about my 05′ Explorer. Hopefully i get an answer on this one. During the winter time I never had any lights come on while driving. But one day when it was hot out and I was driving around for a while and my ABS, advtrac, and 4×4 lights all turned on. I figured i had a wheel speed sensor gone bad and I wasn’t too worried. we had this one week of cool weather and I noticed the lights didn’t come on at all but when it warmed up outside it would come back on again. Any ideas on whats going on?

Topic

[none]

Get the codes pulled. Even without the ABS or other lights on currently, it should still have codes in memory.

[Luis]

autozone doesn’t have a scan tool i can use that can pull that code and a shop i called wanted to charge me $100 which i think is insane.

[zero]

$100 is insane. Until you price out a tech level scan tool.

The $100 should include most of the relevant troubleshooting for repairing your issue. Depending on the shop’s standards when it comes to things like CEL diagnosis.

[J]

I think it may also be possible for the ABS light to come on if the battery is on its way out. Either due to voltage issues outright or a weak or defective ABS sensor that shows the defect or failure when voltage is weak. Is it an old battery? New battery? The heat may be exacerbating a failing battery…

For me it was the opposite. During the winter if I hadn’t used the car for a few days and it was brutally cold outside I was almost guaranteed to get the ABS light on for a few seconds after the car started on the first cold start then it would go off and not come back on unless the car wasn’t driven for a while.

That battery was on the car for five years and causing sluggish cranking during the winter. By the time I pulled it and opened up the caps to check it, it was toast. Electrolyte was way below levels in most of the caps and the voltage was awful. Ever since I put the new battery in I haven’t had the ABS light, cold or hot.

[Luis]

i think the battery issue was right on the money. last winter i came back from work on a cold day and tried to start my truck with no luck. decided to replace the battery and so far this summer my ABS and 4×4 lights have not come on.

[Author]

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