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I just replaced the ball joints, sway bar links, inner tie rods and lower control arms on my ‘06 Smart. Now after about 10 minutes of driving the ABS light comes on. I checked the front ABS sensors and rings for contaminating of dirt or debris but found nothing. I checked the rear ABS rings for cracks but found nothing. They are pretty rusty though. When the ABS light comes on I can shut the engine off and immediately restart it and the ABS light will stay out for another 10 minutes or so. Any suggestions what may be the problem? Thanks!

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You obviously have disturbed something in the front while doing the work, check abs wiring and sensors themselves. Then order a set of rings for the rear.....just for peace of mind especially if rusty already. 
Merry Christmas.....and A Happy New Year...!

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I was really careful while doing the work not to disturb or damage the brake lines or ABS wiring. I checked everything over once I was finished and didn’t see any problems. I have new ABS rings for the rear which I’ll install over the holidays. I’ll also recheck the front sensors and wiring again while I’m at it. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finally got around to changing the rear ABS rings. The light still comes on… but now it takes longer. I have a 22 minute, 22 kilometre drive to work and the light use to come on 10 minutes or so into the drive. Now the light comes on 20 minutes into the drive or not at all… weird!

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Are the rings in line with the sensor, or have you checked the sensor for correct voltage or grounding signal?

It's simply an off and on magnetic switch.

triggered by each block of the ring.

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Yes, I checked that all the rings are aligned with the sensors. What I didn’t check was the distance between the sensors and the rings. What’s the spec and is it even adjustable?

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From what I know, no it's not adjustable and simply fits into a hole and attached with a bolt so basically locked into that location. BUT, maybe you have enough rusting under the sensor to make it or them too far away from the rings????

Just another thought, are there more than one type of reluctor ring for all of the Smart Cars...? IF there is did you buy the correct rings...?  Sorry....lol.

 

 

Edited by Willys
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As far as I know there is only one type.

 

Personally I would suspect the brake light switch. After the ten minutes or whatever does the ABS light come on when you apply the brake pedal.

 

Edited by Mjolinor
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I realise that. Does it coming on relate to the actual pressing of the brake pedal.

 

The brake pedal has two switches in, one is normally open and one is normally closed. As the pedal is pressed the time between these two switches operating is captured by the computer and if it does not happen correctly the ABS light comes on.

 

They are very prone to damp and just a small amount of water in there will make it happen. A lot of water in there and the ABS light can come on at anytime.

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No, the light coming on does not relate to the actual pressing of the brake pedal. We have had a stupid amount of rain here lately so I’ll check the brake light switch. 

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It really is just easier to replace it. They are quite cheap and it seems that once they have had damp in they become flaky.

Every time mine goes faulty I intend to make an electronic version with a single switch but two output, I never seem to actually do it and end up just putting a new switch in.

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  • 1 month later...

Ok… so I’m an idiot! It wasn’t the ABS light that was coming on it was the ESP light. Not sure what I was thinking but anyways… 

So, as I mentioned in the first post I replaced the lower control arms because of worn and rusted out bushings. At the time I couldn’t find just the bushings so I bought new aftermarket control arms made by Delphi. The car never handled the same (yes I got an alignment). Fortunately, I didn’t throw out the old control arms.  So.. I removed the aftermarket control arms, pressed out the bushings, pressed them into the original control arms and reinstalled the original control arms. The car now handles like it should AND… the ESP light doesn’t come on anymore… Apparently aftermarket control arms suck and really mess up the steering geometry. 

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I bought the arms from RockAuto. They were the correct ones… they looked exactly like the original. However, the steel was slightly thinner and they weighed slightly less. I measured the distance from the centre of the ball joint hole to the centre of the bushing holes on both the original arms and the Delphi arms and the Delphi arms measured 4 mm shorter.

I emailed Delphi and informed them of my findings. 

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Keep us informed. It's interesting.

I don't think there is a lot of difference between 451 and 450, maybe Delphi thought they were the same.

It would be a diddly of a job to measure them on the car and I don't have any loose to measure.

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