ABS kicks in at almost a stop

Jake Brake

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2013
Location
southern IL
TDI
2005 Passat GLS tdi wagon
Recently I replaced my upper control arms. At the time I faled to notice the left front abs sensor had moved out of position. It lit up the abs and traction control and had a code. Read my code and it said left front sensor. I pushed the sensor back into place and cleared the code and it stayed off.
After driving a little bit I realized everytime I was almost at a stop the abs could be felt through the brake pedal trying to kick in. I took it out on the road and stopped hard and it does not do it, just when braking lightly and almost at a stop. I am limited by my desktop computer in the garage for reading the wheel sensors. No codes. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 

Tdijarhead

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 10, 2013
Location
Lawrenceville PA
TDI
2003 TDI Jetta Daughters Car, 2001 TDI Beetle, Wife’s car, 2005 Golf TDI Mine, all 5 spds
Are you sure you tighten everything back up?
 

vwztips

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Location
Greenville, SC
TDI
2005 Passat GLS Wagon TDI 5 spd manual w/BSM delete 2011 Tiguan TDI/DSG 2005 Audi A4 Avant 6MQ TDI 2011 BMW X5 35d
I had the exact same issue. Turns out the front of the sensor had been nicked and was causing a false reading at a certain speed and brake pressure. No codes were thrown. Replaced the sensor and it went away
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
You will need to monitor the wheel speed sensor inputs at slow speeds (which is all the ABS module will allow anyway) to see which one is dropping out.

You will obviously need a portable PC to do this.

Or, you can just roll the dice and start replacing sensors.
 

vwztips

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Location
Greenville, SC
TDI
2005 Passat GLS Wagon TDI 5 spd manual w/BSM delete 2011 Tiguan TDI/DSG 2005 Audi A4 Avant 6MQ TDI 2011 BMW X5 35d
Monitoring the ABS sensors is practically useless as it stops at 3km/h and locks up the VCDS once you go above that speed. About all you can do is move forward or back in the driveway just to confirm it is reading them.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
Yep, and that generally is all that is needed. It drops out right at that speed so usually that is sufficient to spot the bad one. That has always been my experience.
 
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