Beating the ABS/Brake light horse again

[jathanmentzer]

I know, old topic. It's just that no one seems to be in the same situation I am. I just finished replacing front rotors, calipers, and pads (Powerstop Z36 kit) and discovered the passenger side hub was shot, spun like a fidget spinner. Also replaced the driver side axle shaft assembly since the threads got screwed up taking the nut off. Anyway, I also threw a new ABS sensor on the driver side hub from a brand new bearing my friend messed up and gave to me, since I had access to it. I get everything back together, bleed the brakes, and as soon as I cross the 20-25 mph mark, the ABS/Brake Christmas tree lights up. Does not come on with brake pedal action, comes on when I hit that speed range and then doesn't go off until I turn the truck off. Pedal feels mushy compared to before, but I think that's an unrelated bleeding issue. Of course 2 minutes into the bed-in procedure and Bambi wants to say hi, knocked my front license plate off but that was it (lights came on before running over deer btw). Not sure what would be causing this, I read the other threads and I doubt that it's a tone ring issue since one hub is new (Timken) and the other was just fine beforehand. Front ABS doesn't do much of anything (Don't feel anything in the pedal either), but it didn't do much before the job either. I forgot to disconnect the batteries when changing the sensors, but disconnecting them later did not change anything. Also, the parking brake light works as designed before I hit 20-25 mph and it stays on, so I doubt it's anything with that system specifically. 4wd light does not come on unless I put it on 4wd, so nothing unusual there. The only area I touched was the front hub/brake assembly, so that must be where some change is causing an error, just not sure what. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[jathanmentzer]

Update: After driving it more, I had the scary experience of losing power brakes while trying to stop, and felt the ABS pulse through the pedal, though I was not slamming on it at all. Seemed like the ABS somehow only kicked in on the driver's side as the truck pulled hard right as well. Would it be worth swapping the old ABS sensor back onto the driver's side hub? Or should I just get a new hub entirely? 

Side note: When ABS isn't freaking out, the Powerstop Z36 kit performs great. I'm not worried about blowing through an intersection trying to stop for a yellow light anymore. Seems like a worthy upgrade for those of us with the pressed-on rotors that can't do a 3rd gen upgrade. (No paid promotion)

[Mopar1973Man]

Me personally, I would have avoided the Powerstop kit. The ceramic brake pads will eat the rotors before eating the pads. When I look at the pad life on my own truck at 180k miles for my first set. My second set of brake pads are going to most likely exceed 200k miles on they are rock bottom economy pads. I'm still running OEM rotors which have been turned once took very little to straighten back to true again. 

 

Trust me after see what ceramic brakes do you are not going to be happy replacing rotors being you have to press stud out every time. 

 

Everyone says it my exhaust brake that does this. Not true. 171k miles on my 1996 Dodge 1500 with a V8 5.9L gas engine no exhaust brake there either. I finally did my first brake job on only the front axle last year. Again I used the bottom of the barrel economy pads so the rotors don't get chewed up.

[jathanmentzer]

12 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Trust me after see what ceramic brakes do you are not going to be happy replacing rotors being you have to press stud out every time. 

 

It definitely wasn't a fun job and I'll keep that in mind and see how these wear, but for now, I appreciate the stronger stopping power (50 mph to 0 in a telephone pole gap) over pad/rotor life. I do plan to swap to a 2001+ non-CAD axle before the rotors need to be replaced or turned more than once again.

When I got up close with the rotors, I noticed they were deeply grooved in spots (I could slide a dime between the rotor surface and a straight edge), so I figured they would be too thin after turning.

 

Back to the ABS seizures, I unplugged the driver's side sensor and it hasn't freaked out since, so at some point next week I might try to swap the old sensor (that worked) back in and see if that fixes it.