Message center light question

[Scott Elliott]

I bought my truck back in January, and I have never seen the "brake" light or "ABS" light come on in the message center. According to the owner's manual, they should come on for 2. 8 seconds with the "wait to start" and "water in fuel" lights. I decided the bulbs must be burned out so I pulled the face off of the dash and gee, the bulbs were gone and the retaining clips were gone. It was obvious from the wear marks that they used to be there. I know the ABS doesn't work (probably for the better too) because I left 60' skid marks when I was in an accident last month. I had the brakes serviced last month, so I am not worried about the brake light. Is there anyone else out there with "missing" bulbs? Should I go out and buy new clips and replace the bulbs so I can stare at these idiot lights? I would just assume leave it the way it is, but I wanted y'all's opinions. Thanks for any info.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

SOUNDS like someone disabled the ABS poorly, and got tired of seeing the warning lights on all the time, so pulled the bulbs



There IS a better way...



If the ABS is disabled PROPERLY, rear brakes will then operate in a conventional non-ABS manner, and the warning lights will STILL be in operation to warn of other system problems...



Replace the missing bulbs, then if they stay lit all the time, check to see if the plug has merely been removed from the ABS sensor at the top of your differential housing. If it has, try installing a 2000 ohm 1 watt resistor into the plug on the end of the cable to the sensor - that should "trick" the ABS computer into thinking the sensor is still connected, but will disable ABS operation and still allow the rest of the system to be monitored by the warning system in case of other brake related failures or problems.



Naturally, you follow these suggestions at your own risk...