ABS light, no ABS

Brakes work fine, i've been driving with it like that for 6 months, but the inspection is coming due so it's time to make it go out. Cleaned the sensors (were a bit dirty) but not getting any change. The light came on during an ice storm, but i havn't found anything actually damaged... Ideas?

 

I have an idea but I am not sure this is what you are dealing with. I just reently installed the OME Heavy Load front springs due to the addition of the ARB bumper it was sagging a tad. When I took off the passenger side upper control arm castle nut, the spindle just dropped really fast and I was not fully prepared and did not catch it so it stretched out the ABS sensor wires. When it did this you could not see the line broken anywhere, and the external sheath was all there, but you could tell there was a section that looked narrower than the rest. When I got the truck all back together the ABS light was looking at me, I figured well I guess I did do something to it when it dropped fast. I ended up pulling back the external black rubber sheath to discover the two wires inside had been pulled until they snapped the wires themselves. It had the wire sheathing looking like a pigtail it stretched so bad. That being said after figuring it out it was very easy to repair, I got some fresh ends on the wires and then tapped them all back together for the resulting no ABS light. So maybe you were not doing something like that but maybe something popped up and hit the line or something, its a start at least. Good Luck!

 

A clockspring would throw an air bag code. Get your codes read it wil tell you where to start looking.
Probably a sensor problem.

 

i also have (and have had for about 7 months longer than the ABS light) an airbag light. what is a clock spring? never heard of it before. Called all the dealerships and local shops around, but noone has a diagnostics machine that will work with US-spec toyotas... down side to being in England. I have a friend with a cable and computer programs that MAY be able to read it, but he cant until monday or tuesday, so i will be cleaning the sensors and tracing the wiring in the mean time.

 

Clock Sping - a sliding electrical contact within in the sterring wheel.

You need an OBDII scanner.

 

For the abs light, could be a cracked or damaged tone wheel, bad abs sensor, brake switch above pedal, etc... Can basically be any of a bunch of things. For the clock spring, think of it this way, if the steering wheel had wiring to the airbag and horn, eventually the wires would break from twisting back and forth while turning the wheel back and forth all the time. The clock spring makes constant electrical contact for your horn and steering wheel mounted airbag.

 

You can remove the airbag and test resistance across the clockspring. Wait 15 min after disconnecting the battery before removing the airbag. Don't let anything touch the airbag's connector after removing.
I think the TTORA guys have a schematic for our trucks.

 

i didnt know what that spring was called but makes sense now. gonna start tinkering today after work, hopefully i'll get somewhere with it. thanks for the pointers, i'll update as i make progress for more troubleshooting ideas

 

If you pulled the ABS fuse and drove like that it sets two codes in the system one will go away when fuse is put back the other you need a scan tool to erase.