Abs turns on at 5mph.

[e30 gangsta]

Hey guys I have a weird issue with my e30. I turn the car on I get no lights on the cluster and everything seems fine. I hit the gas and go about 5-10mph then hit the brakes softly and the abs kicks in. It kicks in for like 5 seconds then the abs light turns on. Any idea what is going on? Or where I should start looking 1st? Thanks for your help.

[E30Kaiser]

My car does the same, and I don't really care about it right now enough to fix it haha, but everyone has told me it is a faulty speed sensor.

[e30 gangsta]

By speed sensor you mean the two abs sensors on the front struts?

Anyone else?

[Farbin Kaiber]

Yeah, I'd say check the speed sensors, and clean the the toothed wheels with brake cleaner.

[e30 gangsta]

OK thanks. I assume its the sensor behind the hub that comes out with a allen key. And the teethed ring is also on the back of the hub?

[Farbin Kaiber]

Yep and yep.

[nrubenstein]

By speed sensor you mean the two abs sensors on the front struts?

Anyone else?

You have ABS in the back, too.

[Beej '86 325es]

OK thanks. I assume its the sensor behind the hub that comes out with a allen key. And the teethed ring is also on the back of the hub?

I had the same issue about 8 years ago. Either the ABS light would be on and it wouldn't work, or the ABS would kick in at 5mph. It turned out my pulse wheel on one of the rear wheels was coroded and caused the sensor to give bad readings. The fix for the time being was to remove the ABS relay.

[ForcedFirebird]

If you remove the relay, you will lose ABS and your brakes will lock up in the rain, so be careful!

My ABS is malfunctioning also, did the diagnostic of pulling one sensor at a time, replaced the relays with known good ones, and the light is still on all the time. Got a good scare in the rain last week, fronts locked up, had to pump them like crazy because some id10t in Boca decided to cut in front of me just as the light was turning yellow and slammed on his brakes :(

I have some spare sensors if you ever make it out to the shop ;)

[SeatownE30]

this happened to me over the weekend. pulled off the passenger side front wheel to find that something cut my ABS sensor wire in half. Did the repair and its works like a charm.