Thread: I feel a little unsafe....lol

Okay so here is sort of a good 1. I was leaving work I started my car and I rolled my window down to talk to somebody. So the the car was idling everything was okay. When I went to leave I heard this sort of ticking sound from my dash somewhere. It was a little weird. I put the car in reverse my DIC my ABS light my traction light everything was going on and off on and off in the car what sort of acting weird the brakes didn't feel right or anything so I put it in park and shut it off for a second. Restarted the car now everything is fine. Any idea what that could be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNaJaFtOBSI

When you shut the car off the self destruct deactivated. Good thing you knew the secret code.

Battery may be going bad. Low voltage will cause all sorts of odd issues.

What are you driving? Could possibly be a security issue.

Since it cleared when you restarted the car, I think the computer just farted. Ticking under the dash is usually a relay turning on or off, sounds like the traction control was just being weird, happens in my 04 sometimes. Like anything else, just keep an eye on it.

Since your brakes felt weird, its likely a wheel speed sensor acting up, engaging the ABS when its not needed. Mine does that quite a bit, best(cheap) fix is to pull the ABS fuse, it will turn on your ABS, BRAKE, and traction light and you will not have ABS, not a big deal, many cars lack ABS.

Ummmm ABS is good to have when your sliding into the back of that big truck in front of you. My guess is that the voltage beening sent to the computer was low, or the computer didnt fully engage when it powered up from when you turned on the key. The third gen camaros have that problem some times. But just give it 2 seconds to boot up.

ABS sucks BIG TIME. It has caused me to slide in situations where non ABS would not have.

idk about you guys but the f body up grade helped out with the abs kicking on so easy in the snow and wet roads, i have to get on the brakes pretty hard to even get the abs to kick in in snow.

rain/wet roads, i have to stand on them as hard as i can, then the light will flash, the pedal will pulse, in the last feet of stopping.

dry pavement, if i nail them at any speed, the car just comes to a rapid stop, no abs at all. solid pedal right to a stop.


rule # 1 ive learned is when the abs kicks in, let of and reapply the brakes, but not as hard, ( especially in snow) the pedal comes back and you get rid of the helpless feeling of mush under your foot.

id start with cleaning the battery terminals, then check the main grounds on the trans bell housing, theres 3 wires there, make sure the wires are still tight in the loops bolted down, and they are tight. if you see any bare wire, they need new loops put on and re attached.

if all that checks out test the hubs for play, jack up each wheel, and push and pull the top of tire firmly, you looking to feel play in the hub, also check the hubs plugs, clean then put them back on, and check the wires leading to the hubs for damge, do this for all 4 wheels.

if they all feel tight, and the wires look ok, take it in to be scanned, or your just tossing money at it and hoping its fixed.

Low voltage meaning battery voltage dropped below 5 volts as the car was cranking. Stupid **** will occur if that happens, and usually the alternator will put enough of a surface charge on the battery that it won't happen again if you shut the car off and start it again. Happened to me a few times when I got off work at 1am and it was like 0 degrees out. As long as you don't have any lights on, the system is operating properly. If it keeps happening, start by looking at the age of your battery

it could do it.

you can try wrapping tin foil around the threads of the cable bolt, to snug up the threads, if it holds tight, you can get away with it till you "need' a new battery.

make sure you wrap the threads so its still being turned tight on the bolt when threading it in, ot it can un wrap and do nothing, kinda like Teflon tape on pipe threads.

You found and fixed the issue.