Branrr

I’m sure I’m not the first one to do this… I replaced a ball joint boot today on the rear left, and when releasing the ball joint from the upper arm, the spring/strut jolted the lower arm down, and the wheel speed sensor harness got pulled tight. I took up the slack with the floor jack and the sensor appeared fine from the outside.

However when the job was complete the ABS light was on in the dash. I used a multimeter and confirmed that sensor is shorted, about 80 ohms compared to about 1300 ohms for the other 3 sensors (I measured at the ABS electrical connector under the hood and the service guide schematic).

Luckily a new sensor isn’t a fortune, but before I buy one, is there any hope of fixing the sensor? Or is it a sealed unit? I didn’t remove it from the hub yet.

RolanTHUNDER

If there's a break in the wire that you can see/reach then a simple solder could do the trick. If not then you would need a replacement sensor.

noodels

Would run it up the road to see if it goes out first

engifineer

As others said, may be fixable if you can solder it. If it broke right where the wire enters the sensor it will be tough though.

In the future, you should always have the nut on the balljoint when you pop them loose. Just thread it on about half way, then pop the joint. It will keep everything from flying apart like that.

Car Analogy

Short and Open are opposite things. Short isn't a universal term for electrical issue, it means something specific. It means wires touching that aren't supposed to touch (or any other way electric current can circumvent its normal path, finding a 'short' cut route).

Since he is measuring way LESS resistance than normal, a Short, he has the opposite of a broken wire.

If it were a broken wire, the ohmmeter would read infinity. He is reporting 80 ohms, when he is expecting 1300 ohms.

engifineer

Given what led to it, a partial short is likely due to the wires being pulled partially out of the sensor and now touching one another to some degree, but hard to tell without looking at it. In that case, soldering still may be required. But if it is right at entry to the sensor it may be tough, especially if someone does not have a lot of soldering experience. Given the nature of these signals it is likely just better to replace the sensor if it is indeed at fault I would likely try to repair if it were mine, but I have also spent countless hours soldering PCBA components in my career and am pretty comfortable assessing if something can be repaired reliably and have a decent setup for this type of work. I think the sensors are about $30ish bucks?

Branrr

The sensor is $160 and I’ve already ordered it. For something somewhat safety critical and not incredibly expensive I’m just going to replace it. Lesson learned for the future on ball joints (thanks for the tip with leaving the nut on).

I’ll tear apart the old sensor and see if it appears serviceable for fun, however it appears to be a sealed/potted unit. I do have experience with electronics and soldering.

engifineer

ah shit ... looked at that wrong. But I see they have gone up for other vehicles as well recently checking around using other cars I own. Ugh.

Given what I do for a living, it is insane how much these cost compared to many much more complex devices we develop. But costs for everything have been climbing steadily! For reference, mfg cost on a smart thermostat we developed, with 4 different radios in it, a nice custom display, all the plastics, packaging, etc is $60 ea. Sale price would be higher of course, but just to put this in perspective! But parts prices will continue to go up over time unfortunately.

Slowcrash_101

The Fed is starting its pivot, which means that although interest rates are still going up, the rate at which they increase, is slowing down. From .75 basis points to .5 then .25 until inflation is brought under control. From the projections I'm seeing, interest rates could go back to pre-covid levels around q3 of 2023. Lower energy prices have a lot to do with inflation reducing. WTI and Brent crude have gone down in price which is finally being reflected at the pumps.

engifineer

Interestingly that product I mentioned has not gone up 1 penny in mfg costs since sometime in 2020. Well it did a little but that was when we added features and components which just drove it up the price of those new parts. We saw some parts costs go up a little in 2020 but then it has been stable.