ABS light coming on

[jmichalicek]

Ok, so around march or april or something this year my traction control started kicking in randomly. I had no money, so I started just driving with it off. As of today my ABS light is randomly coming on. Brakes seem to function fine while it is on. So, keeping in mind that I'm mechanically retarded, the questions:

1) Is it safe to drive until I can actually afford to do something about this?
2) How much am I looking at spending to fix it?
3) Is there anything, however small of a chance, that this is somehow related to getting new tires. I realize this probably sounds strange but the traction control started randomly kicking in immediately after getting new tires. I just got new tires again yesterday and there's the ABS light coming on. Maybe it's just coincidence, but there seems to be a connection.

edit: Just used the good ol' search. Looks like it's probably safe to drive for now, right? And looks like not too terribly expensive to get taken care of once I've got some cash.

 

[COramprat]

It's probably a bad wheel sensor...how to figure which one I don't know. The only problem you will ahve is the anti-lock brakes won't work.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

This could be a big problem when driving in winter conditions...

 

[COramprat]

This could be a big problem when driving in winter conditions...

Winter? Whats that?

 

[Dusstbuster]

my ABS light's been on ever since i bought the car. Dont know whats wrong with it and really dont care because i have no clue how much it would cost to fix it (probably too much)

I survived a Minnesota winter last year as a first time driver on completely bald wheels (see SLICKS) w/ a RWD car and no traction control or ABS.......no accidents. You should be fine, just be a very conservative driver in the winter if you dont plan on fixing it until after.

 

[jmichalicek]

Cool, I should be ok then. I'm in Va, not too much snow here and I grew up driving in Iowa without ABS, so no problem. Thanks for getting back to me, guys.

 

[1low03gt]

How is the fluid level?Is it only coming on when you are braking?
If so,mine did the samething.Every time i would brake it would come on,but yet everything felt right,drove me nuts,so i checked my fluid level,and it was sitting just over the minimum level line.So everytime i would brake,the fluid would slosh forward in the reservoir,tripping the sensor to come on,and telling the abs light on the dash to come on.So i filled the son of a b**** up to the maximum level line,and all is well.No more abs light coming on.
Worth a check .

 

[jmichalicek]

fluid level is good, that was the first thing I checked when I got home. The light is coming on completely randomly. Sometimes when braking, sometimes just driving. Sometimes just a flash, sometimes a few seconds, sometimes several minutes.

Mostly just annoying now that I'm not worrying that I could lose my brakes at any time. I'll just have to get it taken care of later... got a wedding and xmas both in december, so no money to spare until after that mess is over with.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Sounds like a bad ABS sensor to me...