95 Legacy ABS Strange Issue

[M Daly]

The ABS light went on last Saturday, then when the car was stopped, the
Nippon hydrolic unit in the front left of the engine compartment kept
buzzing. I left the car out and the buzzing stopped whent the battery ran
dead. I tried disabling by pulling the 2 fuses which claimed to have
something to do with ABS, but that didn't stop it.

Anyway, I charge the battery up all day on Sunday, then took the car to the
shop on Monday. ABS worked fine, no light, checked out fine, and so did
the battery. Subaru mechanic suggested that sometimes when voltage falls
below 12 the ABS will act out. Never happened before in 10 years of
ownership.

Everything worked fine until this morning (another Saturday, of course)
when the light went on and the buzzing started again. I pulled it in the
garage and this time disconnected the battery, which stopped the buzzing.
After awhile I hooked up the battery and there's no buzzing, so I'm topping
it off and we'll see.

We did get 14 inches of snow this week, and the Sub has been sitting out
(about 5 avbove zero this morning) and there was a ton of snow in the wheel
wells this morning.

Has anyone run in to this issue?

Any ideas on the source of the problem or a fix?

 

[Michael Szoenyi]

Hi M...

Yes, I've been running into this issue for a couple of years with my old '92
Subaru Legacy Turbo. Sometimes under wet conditions or high moisture or a
lot of ABS working in snowy conditions, it started with the same symptoms
you describe: ABS warning light, ABS stopped working (wheels lock) and the
hydraulic unit from the ABS kept buzzing. I found out that it seemed to be a
slack joint or some sort of loose contact. Whenever I disconnected the ABS
in the engine compartment (NOT by the fuses, though!), it stopped buzzing
and started again when reconnected.

Here is the hard way solution: A small slap or stroke on the ABS box with a
hard item (back of a screwdriver or something similar) while the buzzing was
going on (i.e. while connected) helped always with me, the buzzing stopped
and returned only a couple of weeks / monts afterwards.

I now own a '94 Legacy Turbo that hasn't got this problem

Hope that helps

Mike

 

[Robert L Wilson]

I posted a while back a discussion of replacing the relay with a generic one
from an electronics supplier...
Bob Wilson

 

[mike]

yip its that silly relay failure again.
its quite a common problem the relay get stuck on the ON position, either
during the startup test or during an emergency stop.
The relay is located under the black cover you can pull it out & your brakes
will still work but your ABS won't.