ABS, Brake and traction control lights come on....sometimes

[Jon540i]

Once in a while they come on when I first start the car in the morning. Sometimes it goes a few weeks without coming on. Usually it's only the first time I drive the car, then I get back in and start it up...and all the lights stay off.

Does this mean something in my ABS is going bad? Is there a way to make it last a bit longer?

[triggrhaapi]

Does this mean something in my ABS is going bad? Is there a way to make it last a bit longer?

1. It's probably an intermittent issue with a wheel speed sensor. Either a bad sensor or a broken wire somewhere. All of those systems use the wheel speed sensors.

2. If you want it to last "a bit longer" fix it. No way I know of to identify the broken sensor, but I'm new to E46 land.

[TC535i]

think the only way to identify is to hit it with a scan tool, it'll tell you what wheel's triggering the error

[Jon540i]

So it's not an ABS control module that needs to be sprayed/cleaned with that electric component cleaner product?

[TerraPhantm]

Cleaning the sensors won't do anything - the wheel speed sensors are hall sensors which don't rely on being clean (and we'd see *a lot* more people with wheel speed sensor issues if they were sensitive to dirt and debris). It also might not be the wheel speed sensors at all - they're a common cause of hte DSC warnings, but not the only ones. In my case it was actually a steering angle sensor.

Only way to find out exactly what the problem is is to hook up the car to a dealer computer and read the codes.

[Jon540i]

Is the ECU logging all of those codes? Because all of the lights are off now. Anytime they're on...by the time I could get to a dealer, all the lights would be off again, they never stay on very long.

[danewilson77]

Is the ECU logging all of those codes? Because all of the lights are off now. Anytime they're on...by the time I could get to a dealer, all the lights would be off again, they never stay on very long.

When was you last alignment?

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[Junaid]

Could be steering angle sensor

[Jon540i]

And it only happens when my car is extremely hot, or extremely cold at startup.

For that reason, I suspect the underhood portion of that system, not the wheel speed sensors.

[Jon540i]

When was you last alignment?

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Before I bought it.