ABS, Traction, etc. failing?

[H3ALPHA]

About 2 months ago, had my mechanic, who has done a great job on my H3, replace the front pads on the H3.


Picked it up on the same day was traveling about 100 miles.


While driving, out of nowhere, the ABS warning light went off as well as the traction control.


Stepping on the brake gave a feel of a crunching sound.


Went back multiple times since, they have replaced both rear ABS sensors, but are otherwise clueless what is going on.


They only can surmise it is the ABS system or bearings, but they have no real idea.


Last pick up of the H3 was a few days ago, after they had it for 4 days. They could not duplicate the issue at all.


So picked it up, drove the car on streets and highway in the morning. Made multiple stops turning the car off and on at each location, and all was OK.


Same day, after being idle for several hours, the brakes began to crunch while stopping only two blocks. The “ABS" and "Car with tire tracks" lights both came on. By the next time breaking at a Stop sign, the “!” light came on as did the "ABS Failed…" message and bonging sounds.


Pulled over asap, shut the car off. Restatred and the lights were still on. Drove more and the brakes were very crunchy at each stop sign. Pulled over again and shut off the engine. Waited a minute or two and restarted the engine. All lights were off and brakes were back to normal. This keeps happening without warning or without any clear pattern setting it off. It has happened while moving on the highway and also locally when reaching a stop sign.


Any ideas?

 

[Jeepwalker]

Do you know if they hooked a scanner up to it and watched (verified) wheel sensor pick-up? Or reset the BCM? Ideally, someone needs to hook up a good Scanner in ABS mode, set up to do a freeze-frame capture the moment the issue occurs. This will capture the data the moment before and after. I would guess it's a faulty wheel sensor or the wire got pinched (broken) ..or corroded connector, but they replaced the sensors a second time so probably not the sensors. But could be the wiring. Or, I wonder if maybe there is air in the system that they didn't get bled out? Do you know if they did any brake bleeding? They'd need a scanner to put in brake bleed mode and operate the pump, to effectively bleed out the brakes. Sometimes it takes a time or two to get the air all out.

There might be a possibility it could also be a corroded pin up by the fuse box, or the brake pedal switch could be flaky too. My truck is doing something wonky like that now and the scanner says it's the pedal switch. I just received the replacement. A faulty brake switch can cause multiple issues. Sorry, I'm just thinkng out loud here...

That's a tough one to diagnose.

 

[08H3]

I would have thought the shop would have caught a bad bearing, but that's still what I would check first.

 

[H3ALPHA]

Do you know if they hooked a scanner up to it and watched (verified) wheel sensor pick-up? Or reset the BCM? Ideally, someone needs to hook up a good Scanner in ABS mode, set up to do a freeze-frame capture the moment the issue occurs. This will capture the data the moment before and after. I would guess it's a faulty wheel sensor or the wire got pinched (broken) ..or corroded connector, but they replaced the sensors a second time so probably not the sensors. But could be the wiring. Or, I wonder if maybe there is air in the system that they didn't get bled out? Do you know if they did any brake bleeding? They'd need a scanner to put in brake bleed mode and operate the pump, to effectively bleed out the brakes. Sometimes it takes a time or two to get the air all out.

There might be a possibility it could also be a corroded pin up by the fuse box, or the brake pedal switch could be flaky too. My truck is doing something wonky like that now and the scanner says it's the pedal switch. I just received the replacement. A faulty brake switch can cause multiple issues. Sorry, I'm just thinkng out loud here...

That's a tough one to diagnose.

Their techs ( 2 of them) said it threw no codes, they checked the wires, and previously the brakes were bled.

They are saying the brake pedal switch would not cause this issue.

At times, it feels like the brakes are locking up, preventing from going forward.

I am waiting on an ABS scanner, so will drive around with that to see what codes get thrown.

Won't have it until tomorrow.

 

[H3ALPHA]

I would have thought the shop would have caught a bad bearing, but that's still what I would check first.

Their initial guess when I picked it up and prior to still having the same issues, was possibly the ABS system itself (which they stated would be a very expensive guess) or the bearings.

 

[alrock]

ABS system is not prone to failure on the H3. Bearings are easy to troubleshoot.