ABS Relay Mod ..anyone done it?

Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:21 am

My ABS relay has blown and they are now NLA (confirmed by Cotswolds).

Ive seen a video on youtube about opening the relay and fitting an external 7.5 fuse.

Has anyone done this mod?...any tips?

Regards

Gary

Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:41 am

This is an acceptable mod., as long as the avalanche diode (top hat shaped thing) hasn't died.
Open up the module, solder a wire in place of the blown fuse wire, and fit the external fuse in the plain red wire.
Alternatively, it may be possible to convert to the later system, which takes power from the DME relay, and doesn't use the troublesome relay at all, which brings me to something I've always wondered. Were there any changes made to the ABS ECU to improve its reliability when exposed to interference/spikes, when the power supply arrangements were changed from the earlier to the later type?

Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:40 pm

thanks for the imput Brian, ..i was not aware that later models had a differnt type of set up. i will look further into this

Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:05 pm

If the diode has died (that would be just my luck) how diffiult is it to remove ABS ?

She is a summer car only and does no more than 3 thousand miles a year.

Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:33 pm

Summer car or not, no sane person would remove ABS from a car to which it is already fitted!
Failure of the diode is unusual, so the chances are that a link and an external fuse will cure the problem.

Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:58 pm

bit red faced...

i had some time free this evening and discovered that i have the later type ABS...

I have pulled both relays (one black and one silver/aluminium) and will replace them...hopefully these are not NLA either.

thanks for your help Brian.

Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:30 pm

These relays don't normally fail.
What, exactly, is happening with your ABS?

Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:23 am

The abs light is constantly on. It appears to have happened after my mechanic refitted the dash. Before the dash was removed the light came on briefly when started then went off as it should. Everything else works fine.

I figured it had to electrical and replacing the relays was my first port of call.

Could it be something else?

Regards

Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:38 am

The first thing I would check is that it's actually the ABS warning light that's plugged into the hole for it in the cluster. What colour wires go to the lamp?

Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:48 pm

Sorry to hijack, ..
But i did the relay mod on mine.

I had the older type metal relay on the left side (lhd) under the steering cowling.

The thin fuse wire was indeed burned over.
I got hold of an inline fuse holder and soldered this to the body as shown on the diy.
Fitted the housing in place and it worked fine,

The only point i will make is, that there is an isolating sheath inside the relay housing , and this is positioned inside in one specific position.
If the housing is placed over the body orientated incorrectly, the relay will short curcuit and you will need to replace the fuse ;)

I do have pics somewhere..

Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:23 pm

Metal relay in the post today

Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:01 pm

Thank Dan, relay arrived but it did not solve the error.

Brian , I have posted a couple of photos of the bulb that i removed from the cluster abs port..

Its the only single build their.

Can anyone help?

Regards

Gary

Thu Aug 20, 2015 8:02 pm

That is the ABS bulb

Thu Aug 20, 2015 10:29 pm

Yes, that's the ABS warning bulb. IIRC, on one famous occasion, we eventually discovered that one of the bulbs that was supposed to be illuminating the headlamp levelling control had been pushed into the position for the ABS lamp.
If this is definitely the later system, with no protection relay, then this is going to have to be solved by starting from the beginning, checking one thing at a time, so proceed as willnz says.