ABS Pump Repair - ECU Tesing, Autotronics?

[smack]

I have a ABS unit on a car (friends Lotus) that is throwing intermittent faults. The fault code it gives back is a pump fault, which seems to be issue on the Kelsey-Hayes Unit which is shared on other cars. I have tested all the electrical and ground connections and can't find a problem with those to rule them out, as I saw power supply issues can give this error. Although the ABS fault light has come on after heavy rain that is strange....

Autotronics list the ABS unit as one they do, but doing searches here and online, I don't see much talk about them, and their google reviews don't have many relating to ABS repairs, with one saying they couldn't fix motor faults.

ECU Testing don't list the unit, so I called them, and they said they know the unit, but have never seen one, so they can't promise anything. If they can't test it, it is free, testing with no fault £45, but the fault code I have they fix on other ABS Pumps.

ECU Testing gets good reports on here, whilst Autotronics I found only mentioned on one thread, but it was an Auto Electrician who used them. Does anyone have advice and experience on these companies fixing ABS Units, especially if it is pump or motor issue?

[blue_haddock]

Have you tried BBA reman?

I've used them a lot in the past for this kind of repair but never this specific vehicle.

[smack]

blue_haddock said:

Have you tried BBA reman?

I've used them a lot in the past for this kind of repair but never this specific vehicle.

I had discounted them due to amount of bad feedback on here on various threads when I did a search.

[stevemcs]

We use ECU testing, we have had a couple that they couldn't fix - Sierra Cosworth being one of them, but what we find useful is being able to track the product and know exactly when its there, being repaired or not, and how much. We used to use BBA reman but there service wasn't as good.

[Paule2359]

Hi, have you looked at Technozen Electronics site he does some Lotus bits.

[blue_haddock]

smack said:

blue_haddock said:

Have you tried BBA reman?

I've used them a lot in the past for this kind of repair but never this specific vehicle.

I had discounted them due to amount of bad feedback on here on various threads when I did a search.

I've not used them in a few years but back when i did use them i was using them several times a month and whilst they were often slow i never had an issue.

[rallycross]

Ecu testing are very very good and well priced

[Polly Grigora]

smack said:

Although the ABS fault light has come on after heavy rain that is strange....

Could it be that the ABS is more active when the roads are slippy?

I would want to be seeing if the supply and return to the ABS pump were present and correct when the light comes on before thinking about ECU failure

[stevieturbo]

Polly Grigora said:

Could it be that the ABS is more active when the roads are slippy?

I would want to be seeing if the supply and return to the ABS pump were present and correct when the light comes on before thinking about ECU failure

Or water ingress somewhere.

[Polly Grigora]

stevieturbo said:

Polly Grigora said:

Could it be that the ABS is more active when the roads are slippy?

I would want to be seeing if the supply and return to the ABS pump were present and correct when the light comes on before thinking about ECU failure

Or water ingress somewhere.

And this

[smack]

So, just to update, I decided to try ECU Testing even although they said they had never seen this specific ABS unit, but the did list a 2 channel version of the unit (and just noticed my typo in the Topic title, doh!), and the ABS unit has been picked up and now I wait.

Polly Grigora said:

Could it be that the ABS is more active when the roads are slippy?

I would want to be seeing if the supply and return to the ABS pump were present and correct when the light comes on before thinking about ECU failure

In short no, the fault when it appears after you drive off, when I does a self test, not after an ABS activation. I gave the car a brake test run last week on the wet roads just to make sure it did in fact have a working ABS system, and it was all good after repeated tests.

I don't think it is ECU failure, which I have had on a Bosch unit on a Volvo which was from dry joints, which was common with that car. I pulled the ECU apart and resoldered some connections and it is still fine some 10 years later.
Before I pulled it out I suspected it was the motor, as the fault code on other model cars related to power supply issue to the motor. So I had checked all the power feeds to the ECU for any voltage and ground issues - It was all good.

stevieturbo said:

Or water ingress somewhere.

That is what my gut was telling me from day 1. The car is actually owned by someone on here, but it hasn't been used much the last 2 years, and hadn't really moved since the end of last year. The owner reported the ABS has been intermittent for years, no pattern why, but I picked it up during the heat wave and the car hadn't shown the fault until after the heavy storms we had ending the heatwave, and bingo ABS light (stored codes read which I mentioned, as it was a few days later after a weekend which by that time fault had cleared).

I pulled the ECU off the ABS system - it was a pig of a job due to it's location else I would have done it before, to check for any water ingress under the ECU as I saw someone reported it on their car on a Lotus forum and had corrosion on the connectors, and I think it was a US car, and if it was that obvious an easy fix. No problem, no ingress. Then moved to the fun job of pulling out the unit, not a fun job on the car in question. With the ABS unit out, it has the motor mounted horizontally, and on the underside where it mounts to the Hydraulic unit has a load of rust stains and it has some ferrous metal mount, which I suspect has lost the integrity of seal, and ingress to the electrical connector to the motor. It looks like the channel draining the scuttle could drip onto the motor, explaining the rust marks.

I could have taken it apart at that point, but I didn't want to damage the motor if there was a trick to getting it apart. I'll let people who do this everyday deal with it, as it isn't my car. Anyhow I'll update when ECU Testing get back to me for anyone interested.

[stevieturbo]

Could be water ingress anywhere, not just the ecu. Any wiring/sensors relating to it.

Not usually easy to find though if it is.