Questions and Answers
2 For 1 Buick
Q. I hope you can give me a clue or two.
1. Year, make and model 95 Buick Regal
2. Engine size 3.8L
3. Manual or automatic transmission Automatic
4. Mileage 66,000
5. Carb or Fuel Injection EFI
6. ABS brakes Yes
7. P/S - A/C - Cruise control P/S- A/C- Cruise Control
8. Rack and pinion steering don't knowA couple of days ago I took this car out early (around 5:00am when it was still fairly cool out). Both the ABS and the Brakes lights came on and stayed on. I tried shutting the car off and restarting several times and the lights always came on and stayed on. After reading the owners manual I decided to call AAA and have the care towed to a mechanic. When the tow truck driver arrived he started the car and, of course, the lights did not come on (outside temp at that time was probably around 95). I had it towed to the mechanic anyway. The mechanic could not reproduce the problem but there were two "ABS motor shorted to battery" messages logged.
I drove the car for a day or two without any lights coming on.
Now the ABS light (and not the Brakes light) comes on and stays on pretty consistently. The "Brakes" light seems to linger a little longer than normal. I would assume it is the ABS motor except for the fact that at the same time that this problem developed I've noticed that the car is slow cranking. It starts OK, just cranks slower than normal.
Does this sound like a brake problem or an electrical problem??
A. This may sound kind of dumb, but did any of the people who looked at your car check the brake fluid? One thing I have learned over the years is not to look for the complicated stuff until I have checked all the simple stuff first.
I had a kid fresh out of PennCo Tech, a trade school in Philadelphia, working for me. he spent two days looking for an electrical problem on a Datsun 280ZX. He refused all offers of help insisting he knew all there was to know about cars and he could find the problem. At lunchtime on the third day I went to the car while he was gone and I looked at it. He came back from lunch and I called him into my office and gave him another job. I told him to let the Z-car sit and go back to it later. While he was working on the other car, I replaced the blown fuse and when he was done, I told him to put the ZX back together and that it was fixed. I should have fired him that day because two weeks later he did a brake job on a car and didn't road test it when he was done. When one of the lot men moved the car into the wash bay, the brakes failed and he crashed the car through a garage door.
The brake fluid may have been low enough cold to turn the light on, but as it warmed up and expanded, the light would go out. As time passes and the brakes wear, the level will go low enough to turn the light back on steadily. I would do a good basic brake system inspection before I start looking for problems in the ABS system. 9 times out of 10 it's something much simpler.
As far as the cranking slow goes, I would venture to say that it still has the original battary and it's telling you that it wants to go to that big battery corral in the sky. Have the charging system checked and the batter load tested. That will confirm that part of your problem. There is no conection between the two problems.
