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Head Lights/Dash Dim Under Hard ABS Braking

S

SkullV

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
996
Location
Chicago, IL
Does anyone know what would cause the head lights and the dash lights to become dim under hard ABS braking and immediately brighten after the brakes are released? The blower motor also becomes weak at the same time. I was thinking alternator/battery but if anyone has already experienced this I would love to know the cause!
 
I went out again for a drive and it definitly only happens when the ABS is engaged. I can slam on the brakes and as long as there is no ABS the lights do not dim.
 
I have heard of this in the past. the abs system does draw alot of power and shares the main 60 amp fuse with the blower motor. I don't recall off hand what others have done to correct this. But i do believe it was most 98's that did this.
 
I have this same problem and from what I've read many others do to. I don't think anyone has found a fix for it either. Just wait until your fuse starts blowing under braking and your left with no ABS or heat.
 
So I shouldn't have a problem just leaving it alone unless the ABS light comes on and tells me that there is an ABS problem?
 
SkullV said:
So I shouldn't have a problem just leaving it alone unless the ABS light comes on and tells me that there is an ABS problem?
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If the ABS light comes on and you have no heat then you know you blew the 60A (I think) fuse in the fuse panel under the hood.
 
I have seen and heard of this in many vehicles of this age. My belief is that it is due solely to the heavy power draw from the ABS. I would consider it normal.

Typically very easy to replicate in the winter as only moderate braking is required to get ABS to come on in slippery winter conditions.

I have also seen this happen on vehilces equipped with tranction control. Once traction control comes on, the lights dim until TC is deactivated.
 
What if I take the ABS wire from the fuse block and put it on it's own fusable link to the battery rather then it coming from the same fuse as the lights/blower/etc.?
 
SkullV said:
What if I take the ABS wire from the fuse block and put it on it's own fusable link to the battery rather then it coming from the same fuse as the lights/blower/etc.?
Click to expand...

Any views on this fixing the problem before I do it?
 
I noticed the headlights and dash lights dimmed everytime the ABS pump kicked on. They would remain dim for a short moment, then return to normal. I repeated this a dozen times. Wiring is good and battery is secure. I noticed this problem a couple years ago, but never looked into or determined it was related to ABS. ABS light is off, but has occasionally come on in the past... only to turn itself off. I know there was a recall or TSB for the ABS pump on this year. Bad power/ground to ABS? Serious issue? The brakes seem to stick for half a second after the pedal is released. Is that normal? Brake fluid is fresh and has been flushed several times.

ABS unit is taking a dump ,I replaced the ABS unit with the newer 98.5 unit.
 
About last summer I noticed that when I started my car the lights would dim real low when the ABS pump would self-test. Being that I never really used the ABS I never thought much about it. Most of us don't depend on our ABS brakes to stop us too often and I'm not one who drives depending on them ;)

Anyhow - Since winter is here I started having some strange problems. First off the ABS brakes would work for about 2-3 seconds and then make a loud sawing noise and the brake pedal would go to the floor (consequently causing all 4 wheels to lockup and an interesting 180 degree spin). The first time it happened I thought for sure the brake system itself was boned up. So I inspected everything (lines, calipers, pads..... even the power and grounds into the ABS unit) all checked ok. So I performed a brake fluid flush and found some rust in the rear caliper fluid and also the fluid had a dark green tint to it. So I changed the fluid and bled all 4 wheels according to the manual. This didn't seem to help at all. I then drove the car to a local Ford dealership and explained my problem ( and also had them do a NGS Bleed on the ABS system just in case I missed some trapped air in the ABS Hydraulic pump ). They said they found alot of air inside the ABS pump assy and the ABS was functioning fine. Well, not even a day later I was faced with an opportunity that I had to depend on my ABS to help out with and it did the same thing (ABS worked for a couple of seconds, lights dimmed and the pedal made a sawing noise and went to the floor - locking all 4 wheels and causing the car to slide sideways). This severely pissed me off, and after calling the Ford dealership they told me that they hadn't had any problems with the ABS units and that possibly there was something in the brake system that was preventing the ABS unit from properly doing it's job.

Hearing that they hadn't encountered any problems made me curious - So I headed over to the NHTSA.Com website and browsed all the customer defect complaints on 1998 Contour models. 28 complaints total for brake failures, over half are ABS concerns where the wheels locked up and loss of control was reported. For grins and giggles I searched 1999 models for the same problem and guess what? Not a single report of an ABS problem. Hmm... what changed?

How to change ABS Unit!http://www.fordcontour.org/index.php?showtopic=609&st=0&p=77964&fromsearch=1
 
I have the same problem. But my fuse ends up blowing. That fuse is a pain to replace (it's bolted in) My solution was to brake the plastic on top of the fuse and just stick another on top (after it blows of course). So when it does blow, it just takes a few seconds to fix. Other than that.....Hope your fix works. Keep us posted.
 
Pugulis said:
I have the same problem. But my fuse ends up blowing. That fuse is a pain to replace (it's bolted in) My solution was to brake the plastic on top of the fuse and just stick another on top (after it blows of course). So when it does blow, it just takes a few seconds to fix. Other than that.....Hope your fix works. Keep us posted.
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Will do, I was going to leave it alone until it got a little warmer, but the streets were icy today and it was doing it again. Pissed me off enough that I'm going to do it this weekend.
 
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