ABS warning, and a diagnostic reader

[FNG]

Somehow when I was working out why the Monaro wouldn't start a couple of months ago, I fried the ABS module. I think it was when I was jump starting it to eliminate the battery as an issue (it turned out to be the starter motor).

I therefore had an ABS warning (no ABS, no traction control) on the dash. Removed the modulator and sent it away for repair, which is now done. Refitted it, and still have the warning.

From what I've found online, and it's not conclusive, by fitting a good modulator the warning won't appear - in other words, there is no stored fault code to be cleared before it'll go away.

Question 1: Is this right? Or will I need to clear codes when a good module is fitted?

For what it's worth, the ABS and TC still isn't working. The fusible link is intact. I can't find anything else in the power supply side that could have blown. Which leads me to think best thing is to get a diagnostic reader so I can see what the error is - is there power to the modulator, is there a sensor at fault, has the module repairer done his job properly.

Question 2: what's a good capable diagnostic reader that can interrogate to a reasonable level?

I've seen the Chinese Tech 2 for about £300, which appears to need to be ordered with the right card for the car, and it's unclear if this needs to be for a Holden (English) which I think is actually for a Pontiac GTO, or a Holden (Australian) which is... Australian not UK. But presumably closer to same spec as a UK car.

Also seen people recommending the Vident iLink 400, at about £150, but unsure if it will find ABS and BCM codes, or major on the powertrain.

Any others that people are successfully using?

Cheers.

Pic of New Year run in the sunshine because we all love a picture don't we.

[SturdyHSV]

I have one of the dogst chinese copy things, well, sorry, some sort of box, with some crap software and some ripped copy of the GM Tech 2 that runs on a Windows PC and when it works, works flawlessly.

Having not touched it for a few months, I tried to fire it up to check something for another Monaro and was getting some unhelpful error message, and I haven't bothered looking at the piece of st since

I need to sort out an ABS warning too, so I will be getting it working again at some point, I'll shoot you a Whatsapp as and when I do if you want, I wouldn't recommend buying the box myself as it's just been a constant ballache, but if you're a sadist it's the one on Amazon that's called Vxx something, I think it was about £130, and it's worth about £1.30.

[SturdyHSV]

Should also add, as yours is an 04, there's a couple of wires in the back of the cluster that can be looped or something and that's the end of the warning code, it's not as 'advanced' as the 05 and onwards cars.

That's going by what the yanks have found anyway. I'm not sure if that really helps you in any way, other than it may not necessarily be some sort of a stored code.

I'll try and get the reader working again (did I mention it's crap?)

[FNG]

Ha ha well you'll always have a career in sales with a pitch like that

I'll take a look for this looped wire, that sounds perfect as I don't care about lack of ABS or TC, to me it's better without.

[FNG]

Taken a fair bit of digging but think I've found the reference to a mod to the cluster wiring to eliminate the ABS fault warning.

I'll be trying this when I can get a bit of time to fiddle with the car once it's stopped raining, but just so I have a note of it, and in case it helps anyone else, the recommendation (for an 04 model only)

the internet said:

In the harness going to the gauge cluster is a green wire and yellow/red wire. These are the signal wires for the ABS and traction control. Just eliminate those two wires and the fault goes away. On startup the the DIC does it's systems check and... ...when it doesn't see the abs fault signal it says system check complete.

What I don't know is whether there's any ignition-on warning lamp that an MoT tester would look for, that won't be lit if this mod is done.

[SturdyHSV]

Yep that's the one, I thought there was a green wire in there somewhere but I was thinking green and blue

There's a lot of info on the LS1GTO forums

You might find the lamp illuminates and then goes out because there's no fault indicated, so may work as required. If it doesn't illuminate, technically yeah that'd be an issue, but depends how thorough the MOT tester is I suppose!

I'd agree TC isn't necessary at all, but personally I'm a little uneasy in bad conditions if the ABS isn't working. Last time it was 'almost' an issue my sim racing instincts did kick in, although so did the inevitable target fixation



And yes, it was something like a 1/16th mile race on uneven wet concrete, so the standard non-turbo (but 4WD) GTO utterly smoked everyone

[FNG]

Surprised a Mitsi GTO even made it 1/16th of a mile Even if you did get target fixation, you got over it before you hit anything so all good.

I don't think mine's even remapped (that's another "help! dumb question incoming" thread for later) so I need to actively try to break traction, so am not bothered about lack of TC and I don't attack corners on the road (and only have VXR brakes, it's bloody hard to lock them up at all) so if it gets me through the MoT that's great and I can worry about functioning ABS if I ever feel the need to upgrade to 6-pots and bigger discs.

Doesn't seem necessary at the moment. For the cost of AP brakes and trackday wheels I could buy a halfway competent track car instead.

[SturdyHSV]

FNG said:

Surprised a Mitsi GTO even made it 1/16th of a mile Even if you did get target fixation, you got over it before you hit anything so all good.

I don't think mine's even remapped (that's another "help! dumb question incoming" thread for later) so I need to actively try to break traction, so am not bothered about lack of TC and I don't attack corners on the road (and only have VXR brakes, it's bloody hard to lock them up at all) so if it gets me through the MoT that's great and I can worry about functioning ABS if I ever feel the need to upgrade to 6-pots and bigger discs.

Doesn't seem necessary at the moment. For the cost of AP brakes and trackday wheels I could buy a halfway competent track car instead.

I bet if you stamped on the brake pedal you'd lock them, the VXR brakes are capable of overwhelming the tyres, they just can't do it more than once without a long rest in-between So yeah, no ideal for track use, although others have got on OK with them.

I have EFI Live, so could read off the tune and probably see if it's been mapped by comparing it to a stock tune, or worst case send the tune file to someone who will know

[FNG]

Hmm, well removing the yellow/red and green wires from the instrument cluster connector didn't change anything.

I've checked the wiring diagram and it shows that the green is ABS and yellow/red is TC. So I removed the correct pins. So much for that theory!



I've got one other method to try, which is defeating the short on 3 pins in the main connector to the ABS module. This means it can be disconnected and the cluster should go through its usual system check and not flag any faults.

[SturdyHSV]

There's some sort of daisy chain comms system that means 2 pairs of pins need to be looped on the ABS connector for the car to work, of course I forget what those pins are, but can confirm with the connector unplugged you get nothing, and with the correct 2 pairs looped to each other, it works (albeit with an ABS warning)

This was something I tried many many years ago out of curiosity hence forgetting what pins it is :/

[Davep24]

Not 100% on this but i think the abs codes come from the bcm and latch when a fault is detected. You need a tech 2 or equivalent to reset

[fttm]

Top tip for ABS warning lights , reverse for 50 yds then turn vehicle off , wait a few seconds then ignition on , let everything cycle through before restarting engine . Used this on many different types of vehicles over the years , 50/50 chance you'll not see an ABS warning again .

Always worth trying

[FNG]

SturdyHSV said:

There's some sort of daisy chain comms system that means 2 pairs of pins need to be looped on the ABS connector for the car to work, of course I forget what those pins are, but can confirm with the connector unplugged you get nothing, and with the correct 2 pairs looped to each other, it works (albeit with an ABS warning)

This was something I tried many many years ago out of curiosity hence forgetting what pins it is :/

On the Pontiac variants, they’re adamant that what you refer to above is for 05 and 06 models. And that the 04 model doesn’t have a CAN network so there’s no need to link the wire pairs in order to maintain network continuity.

Of course the UK monaro may differ…

I do have the pins that need to be linked on later cars in case the Pontiac 04 model isn’t like my 04. But am not there yet with my fault finding.

Actually on further thought. I removed the ABS and TC signal wires from the cluster connector and got exactly the same error messages on the cluster - definitely got those warnings though, not nothing, and no CAN error frame messages (which tend to flood the bus with errors so you get all sorts of random errors flagging - which didn’t happen here).

So from that I’m boldly claiming that there isn’t a CAN network on my car.

But I could be really really wrong

Edited by FNG on Wednesday 4th January 20:35

[FNG]

Davep24 said:

Not 100% on this but i think the abs codes come from the bcm and latch when a fault is detected. You need a tech 2 or equivalent to reset

This is one of the things I was hoping someone had a definite answer for, because I can’t find it explicitly stated anywhere that you need to clear the fault, but have seen a few Australian write ups saying you just fit the new module and all’s good - with no mention of having to clear faults.

[tony1966]

when i bought my car it had been off road for a combination of reasons,the owners circumstances/covid and an abs issue-same as your own car
Prev owner couldnt get anybody to diagnose
Changed module at the pump as there was no comms-used tech 2 as there was still a fault-rear wheel sensor
confirmed it was the named sensor by swapping plugs at rear and moving fault
tech 2 is the go to for this as you can read the live data too

early monaro is non canbus -you dont need the candi module to connect the tech 2-where as on later cars you do need it

[fred bloggs]

Reminds me to pick up a wheel speed signal to make traction in my haltech to be operative.
I pulled all the racelogic stuff that hsv fitted when i put in the haltech.

[pistolpete12]

SturdyHSV said:

And yes, it was something like a 1/16th mile race on uneven wet concrete, so the standard non-turbo (but 4WD) GTO utterly smoked everyone

Thats Rye, when it was open, are you close to there? im only down the road from Rya

[SturdyHSV]

pistolpete12 said:

SturdyHSV said:

And yes, it was something like a 1/16th mile race on uneven wet concrete, so the standard non-turbo (but 4WD) GTO utterly smoked everyone

Thats Rye, when it was open, are you close to there? im only down the road from Rya

Nope sadly not, we organised the 'UK Power Tour' which was basically 3 drag strips in 3 days.

Obviously options were limited and Pod / Shakey were pretty inflexible date wise so it ended up being camping at a rugby club nearby and then a bit of fun at Rye, then up to Shakespeare County Raceway, camp overnight, race, then up to York Raceway, camp overnight, race the next day etc.