ABS light on

I’ve taken a car to have it’s CT and the ABS light is permanently on. It passed with no problem. Is this normal? I was expecting them to at least flag it up as iffy.

Hi David, I know very little about cars but I had a similar problem combined with a few other weird messages coming up. I asked in a local centre and they said it could be the battery isn’t up to scratch.
I changed the battery and my problems were sorted.
Maybe you can get the battery checked and measured to see if it is at fault ?

Surprised it passed, I thought that any warning lights needed at least a contre visit

Thanks for your reply Peter. It’s funny you should mention the battery as I think it’s on it’s way out anyway and have ordered another, so I’ll see if that was the problem. I’m more concerned as to why it passed.

perhaps the Tester could enlighten you… :+1: :thinking:

I had a car fail the CT last year because of an airbag light remaining on. The garage traced the fault to a dodgy connection behind the fascia board thingy.

I assume that the brakes were working when tested - perhaps that is enough, ABS may not be required.

Yes, working fine. I assumed that ABS was sort of a plus, as well as a working set of brakes.

This may sound daft, but I seem to remember on the merc there was an option to toggle the ABS on or off and if it was off a warning light came on. One of our Airedales trod on the button and I didn’t realise what had happened and panicked! Do you have an on/off button by any chance?

Er…I’ve no idea to be honest (it’s not my car). Any idea where I might find it if it exists? It’s a PT cruiser BTW.

Sorry, just had a look. There’s an on/off button for the tracking but not ABS. I’m hoping the battery will be the culprit.

Does this help David - just googled. Maybe talk to the garage?

Your Chrysler PT Cruiser’s ABS Light comes on when it fails a self diagnostic cycle. When on, it indicates that the PT Cruiser does not have Anti-Lock brakes, and the safety they provide. … If one of the wheels is starting to lock up, it’ll apply the maximum amount of brake to that wheel in order to keep it from sliding.

No not normally, any warning lamp showing is normally a fail.

Be interesting to know what (if anything) was marked in the advisories… :thinking:

Foggy (opaque-ish) headlights, slight rust on chassis.

Obviously not.

… both of which can probably be dealt with inexpensively… :+1:

The headlight fogging is often from UV damage to the plastic. Polishing kits are available but at a pinch toothpaste works

Yes, that is not really a problem at all.

Is that how the manual describes it? Slightly odd way of putting it, ABS generally recognises that one wheel has locked and releases the brake to allow it to rotate and (hopefully) regain traction, before re-applying braking force. Not much help in a 4 wheel slide (but, then again, nothing is any use in a 4 wheel slide).

Saved my bacon this morning - moderate snowfall in the Midlands, things looked OK as I set out for morning croissants but the conditions literally changed (for the worse) in 10 minutes so very slippery on the way back. Despite gingerly approaching a roundabout and trying to time my arrival after the cars I could see approaching from my right, I was going downhill so started to slide as I tried to slow down a little more. Fortunately plenty of room and nothing was damaged except my blood pressure.