2008 town and country esp/bas, traction control lights and malfunctions
#21
Yes I will
It"s been some time since i did this repair on our van, however, your ABS has more to do with a "controlled" stop (meaning a pedal vibration when ABS is activating). The steering angle sensor gave that ABS activation "feeling" (grinding) upon acceleration and a slight turn of the steering wheel. The esp/bas lights were illuminated on the instrument cluster also and if this would have been an abs/wheel speed sensor problem, there wouldn't have been any malfunction lamp for the traction control/esp. I hope you're able to get your problem solved, please post your results. thanks!
So for now we are replace some the sensor related that the scanner read last week it is not hard to replace them ..the mechanic want to charge us 350 just to replace the Abs sensor only that it may not solve the problem we won't pay for that ..so I will update some to let you know how things going on about it.
thanks
#22
I have a 2008 Town and Country touring and have some similar issues. I thought I would post my symptoms and what I have diagnosed so far. There is a quick fix? that will allow you to drive the car and confirm a few ideas before deciding how you want to pursue repairing your vehicle. My problem started with no warning. I drove 30 minutes home last week, turned off the car, changed clothes, and got back in. When I got to the end of the street I made a left and accelerated and I heard a horrible grinding noise. I immediately pulled over and wondered if I lost an outer tie rod that was starting to get worn. After a quick inspection to make sure tires were all in the same direction and I didn't run over a branch or something I backed the car up and went back 50 yards to my house, where making another left turn into the drive provided the same noise. I jacked up the car and verified all the mechanical hardware connecting the left and right wheels were good. I had just changed brake pads a week prior and had gotten new tires 3 days prior and an alignment right after tires. I had no issues from the Saturday appointment until symptoms on a Tuesday. At first, I wondered if there was something wrong with the transmission. I let the vehicle sit for the night and test drove it in the daytime the next day. Through some trial and error, her is what my symptoms are. First, I have no CEL or ABS or ESP light on. When I am turning left or right going over 5 miles an hour it seems as if the traction control/esp kicks in and the grinding noise is the brakes engaging. Another thing I noted is, on an open stretch of road with no traffic, I can reverse quickly and slalom left and right with no problem, no noise, no indicators. If I go forward at speeds over 5 mph and slalom left and right the traction control indicator lights up and the brakes are engaging ("grinding noise"). Also, at a cul de sac, I can make a turn in any direction under 5 mph and no traction control or noise is heard. At that point, I was fairly certain the problem was not transmission related. After some googling, I believe the problem is the clockspring mechanism in the steering wheel that has a steering angle sensor built-in. All my radio control buttons and steering wheel functions still work so I believe it is just the sensor. I did take the car 15 minutes into town to find a car parts store that had a scanner. I had read that an abnormal steering angle error would show up in some higher-level scanners but had no luck locating a scanner to confirm this. As long as the steering wheel is within about 4 to 5 degrees of center I didn't have a problem driving, but a deeper curve engaged the brakes again. After getting home I located the ABS fuses. There are 2, J6 and J7. I pulled both at first and then alternated them. Pulling J7 was the only one in the end that was necessary. This causes the ABS/esp light to illuminate on the dash but I can drive as fast as I want and turn the steering wheel as tight as I can in either direction without any grinding noise. So this is an electrical problem for me related to ABS/esp. I did see some other posts about possibly calibrating the steering wheel sensor and I will try that tomorrow and report back. I also will call NTB, who performed the alignment, and ask if they have any experience with this problem, and I can't figure out anything by tomorrow morning I will head over to a local salvage yard and remove the clockspring mechanism from another 2008 T&C. I'll reply back to my post if any of these correctly solves my problem. Just remember to safely follow any instructions you get online and disconnect the battery before doing anything to a steering wheel with ABS.
#23
So I have purchased a used clockspring for $25 and installed it pretty easily. There is good news and bad news. The good news is the car no longer engages traction control / ABS braking when turning while accelerating over 5 mph. Unfortunately, now when I start the van up I get the ESP/BAS light and the traction control icon lighting up. Pushing the ESP button will remove the traction icon light for the remainder of the drive but it will come back on when I start the car next. The ABS light does not stay lit after the startup sequence. The van seems to drive just fine though. Also, the airbag SRS light has come on. I am guessing this is a fault of unplugging it and plugging it back in (I did have the battery disconnected) and/or the possibility that both clocksprings are partially bad. I did pull out the newer one and put the original clockspring back in with the van going back to no indicator lights for ABS/ESP/BAS but still acting up in a forward turn with brakes being applied and the traction icon flashing. The SRS light stayed lit no matter which clock spring is installed now. I do have an appointment to get the car realigned and the SAS recalibrated. We will see if that solves the ESP/BAS light. I am probably going to finally order a new scan tool that will diagnose SRS and clear the codes, so I'll hopefully have more info and tips for the future.
#24
So I have purchased a used clockspring for $25 and installed it pretty easily. There is good news and bad news. The good news is the car no longer engages traction control / ABS braking when turning while accelerating over 5 mph. Unfortunately, now when I start the van up I get the ESP/BAS light and the traction control icon lighting up. Pushing the ESP button will remove the traction icon light for the remainder of the drive but it will come back on when I start the car next. The ABS light does not stay lit after the startup sequence. The van seems to drive just fine though. Also, the airbag SRS light has come on. I am guessing this is a fault of unplugging it and plugging it back in (I did have the battery disconnected) and/or the possibility that both clocksprings are partially bad. I did pull out the newer one and put the original clockspring back in with the van going back to no indicator lights for ABS/ESP/BAS but still acting up in a forward turn with brakes being applied and the traction icon flashing. The SRS light stayed lit no matter which clock spring is installed now. I do have an appointment to get the car realigned and the SAS recalibrated. We will see if that solves the ESP/BAS light. I am probably going to finally order a new scan tool that will diagnose SRS and clear the codes, so I'll hopefully have more info and tips for the future.
#25
J7 fuse is a life saver
I have a 2008 Town and Country touring and have some similar issues. I thought I would post my symptoms and what I have diagnosed so far. There is a quick fix? that will allow you to drive the car and confirm a few ideas before deciding how you want to pursue repairing your vehicle. My problem started with no warning. I drove 30 minutes home last week, turned off the car, changed clothes, and got back in. When I got to the end of the street I made a left and accelerated and I heard a horrible grinding noise. I immediately pulled over and wondered if I lost an outer tie rod that was starting to get worn. After a quick inspection to make sure tires were all in the same direction and I didn't run over a branch or something I backed the car up and went back 50 yards to my house, where making another left turn into the drive provided the same noise. I jacked up the car and verified all the mechanical hardware connecting the left and right wheels were good. I had just changed brake pads a week prior and had gotten new tires 3 days prior and an alignment right after tires. I had no issues from the Saturday appointment until symptoms on a Tuesday. At first, I wondered if there was something wrong with the transmission. I let the vehicle sit for the night and test drove it in the daytime the next day. Through some trial and error, her is what my symptoms are. First, I have no CEL or ABS or ESP light on. When I am turning left or right going over 5 miles an hour it seems as if the traction control/esp kicks in and the grinding noise is the brakes engaging. Another thing I noted is, on an open stretch of road with no traffic, I can reverse quickly and slalom left and right with no problem, no noise, no indicators. If I go forward at speeds over 5 mph and slalom left and right the traction control indicator lights up and the brakes are engaging ("grinding noise"). Also, at a cul de sac, I can make a turn in any direction under 5 mph and no traction control or noise is heard. At that point, I was fairly certain the problem was not transmission related. After some googling, I believe the problem is the clockspring mechanism in the steering wheel that has a steering angle sensor built-in. All my radio control buttons and steering wheel functions still work so I believe it is just the sensor. I did take the car 15 minutes into town to find a car parts store that had a scanner. I had read that an abnormal steering angle error would show up in some higher-level scanners but had no luck locating a scanner to confirm this. As long as the steering wheel is within about 4 to 5 degrees of center I didn't have a problem driving, but a deeper curve engaged the brakes again. After getting home I located the ABS fuses. There are 2, J6 and J7. I pulled both at first and then alternated them. Pulling J7 was the only one in the end that was necessary. This causes the ABS/esp light to illuminate on the dash but I can drive as fast as I want and turn the steering wheel as tight as I can in either direction without any grinding noise. So this is an electrical problem for me related to ABS/esp. I did see some other posts about possibly calibrating the steering wheel sensor and I will try that tomorrow and report back. I also will call NTB, who performed the alignment, and ask if they have any experience with this problem, and I can't figure out anything by tomorrow morning I will head over to a local salvage yard and remove the clockspring mechanism from another 2008 T&C. I'll reply back to my post if any of these correctly solves my problem. Just remember to safely follow any instructions you get online and disconnect the battery before doing anything to a steering wheel with ABS.
#26
btw, I pulled mine 15,000 miles ago, and have had no problems.
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03-07-2010 09:15 AM