ABS Problems - driving me nuts

[Cub.]

Right, since last years llandow trackday the flamer keeps popping ABS fuses. Usually if I go over a bump in the road or corner sharply or use the brakes hard.

Swap the fuse, and the christmas tree dash goes out, only to then pop the fuse again as soon as I drive it.

I have checked all the ABS rings, and they look fine. I have visually inspected the sensors and they look ok. I have an RS Tuner and have bought the ABS module, but when I try to connect to the ABS ECU it says; 'Unable to access ABS ECU'. I was hoping to read the fault codes to see the cause, but I don't know why the RS Tuner can't connect to my ABS ECU. I have emailed Henk on that front, and await a reply.

Any ideas guys? Driving me nuts, as I want to get it back on track and I can't with it switching to 50/50 braking every 30 bloody seconds

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Owen92]

Fuse blowing will be a wiring fault or an internal short in the ABS ECU. ABS rings will have nothing to do with it.

 

[Cub.]

Yeah, I am starting to get the dreaded feeling its the wiring / a short.

 

[Dan@SJM]

Pull the sound deadening off from the bulkhead the abs module is under the pas tank. There is also come cabling that goes across the bulkhead by the manifold iirc, this could have melted if its got too close to the manifold.

 

[Cub.]

Cheers Dan, I'll have a look. If I can't easily identify the fault, would it be easier / cheaper to swap to a Cup setup. I'm not that bothered about having the ABS.....

 

[bmh.01]

No the easiest option is the swap the abs pump complete for a known good one. Does the abs still work? Lack of comms would suggest not.

 

[Ricardos]

Pull the sound deadening off from the bulkhead the abs module is under the pas tank. There is also come cabling that goes across the bulkhead by the manifold iirc, this could have melted if its got too close to the manifold.

That happened to mine a while back, the ABS sensor wires weren't clipped back to the bulkhead and ended up melting on the exhaust manifold throwing up the lights. Intermitent to start then permanently stayed on. I had Matt from Codered replace the wires between the module and the sensors (from a donor Clio) retaining the OE connectors instead of splicing the wires

Would plugging it into Renault CLIP be better than the RS Tuner?

 

[bil_liser]

only blowing a fuse when you move the car would suggest to me the ABS unit is presenting a short when initialised, i.e. gets an imput from the pulse sensors off the road wheels.. so i doubt its a wiring fault. Just plug a pump/ecu in and test if it blows the fuse. if not, swap the ecu off the pump over. (if you can on one of these, you can on a lot)

 

[Dan@SJM]

That happened to mine a while back, the ABS sensor wires weren't clipped back to the bulkhead and ended up melting on the exhaust manifold throwing up the lights. Intermitent to start then permanently stayed on. I had Matt from Codered replace the wires between the module and the sensors (from a donor Clio) retaining the OE connectors instead of splicing the wires

Would plugging it into Renault CLIP be better than the RS Tuner?

I've not used an RSTuner to do abs, so can't comment.

 

[MicKPM]

only blowing a fuse when you move the car would suggest to me the ABS unit is presenting a short when initialised, i.e. gets an imput from the pulse sensors off the road wheels.. so i doubt its a wiring fault. Just plug a pump/ecu in and test if it blows the fuse. if not, swap the ecu off the pump over. (if you can on one of these, you can on a lot)

He's right Cub, if it was a short in the wiring it would bang the fused link as soon as you replaced it/powered on so it's going to be an internal module fault that's causing it to pull too much current so as I said to you at the earlier Llandow meet you will most likely need to replace the module itself. You can swap the ECU's over from them but tbh these modules don't cost that much so get yourself one from a car breaking (make sure its an TC/ESP unit if you have this) and just swap the lot as you'll need to remove the complete pump/controller assembly from the vehicle anyway to remove the ECU. It's honestly an easy enough job and should take you no more than 1.5hrs but take your time with the brake pipe unions on the module as they're steel going in to Aluminium so very easy to strip the threads and balls up your replacement module.

Mick

 

[Cub.]

Cheers guys. Appreciate the help, I'll start hunting out a suitable replacement! Thanks for the heads up on the unions Mick. x