Towing the cause of an ABS light.

[DaveL86]

Hi,

Today we had our 2003 Volkswagen Polo towed to a local garage today due to a windscreen wiper linkage failure (it was raining and was unsafe to drive without wipers)

I get a call from the trusted garage saying they will get the part in tomorrow, finishing the call off they goes "oh incidentally did you notice your ABS light is on", now it wasn't before I handed they keys over to the RAC bloke and I trust the garage who suggests its now on.

The garage suggested they will clear the fault and see how it goes, it may of been due to how it was towed (font wheels up and rear wheels down).

Has anyone come across towing causing an ABS fault before? I'm really hoping the RAC guy hasn't broken a ABS wheel sensor when towing the car

[oakdale]

It's just because the rear wheels have been turning but not the front ones.
The light should go out after a short drive.

[DaveL86]

oakdale said:

It's just because the rear wheels have been turning but not the front ones.
The light should go out after a short drive.

Thanks for the reply, sounds like sense

[7ommy]

oakdale said:

It's just because the rear wheels have been turning but not the front ones.
The light should go out after a short drive.

correct did it on my golf when i had it rolling roaded

edit: need to learn to type !

Edited by 7ommy on Thursday 23 July 08:29

[DaveL86]

Both of you are correct, the garage cleared the ABS fault FOC (VW would of charged a diagnostic fee no doubt!) and in the 20 mile journey home it didn't come back on, and to add to that we now have working wipers, the luxury...

[Wycombe83]

This happened to my mk3 Golf after a rolling road session, I pannicked after I took down the road on my home when it was constantly illuminated.
The chap back at the garage reassured me it was because the rear wheels weren't moving during the run, something to do with the computer thought the pump didn't activate when it should.

[Coupe_Daz]

DaveL86 said:

Both of you are correct, the garage cleared the ABS fault FOC (VW would of charged a diagnostic fee no doubt!)

Are you sure they would? Your doing some tarring with a brush I think. As a dealer if we investigate a light on and find its nothing serious or a "sporadic" fault we clear the light FOC and only charge diagnostics if there is a problem and the customer wishes us to investigate it further. This has been the case at all the VW dealers i have worked at and some others