1998 Buick Park Avenue ABS and Trac Off light

GETFIT34

MEMBER
1998 BUICK PARK AVENUE
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
226,000 MILES

I was wondering what would cause an ABS light and Trac Off light to come on at the same time? It appears that the lights only come on when you have been driving a while or when the engine is warmed up some. At one point before the lights came on, the brakes would make a noise when braking. The noise would stop when the vehicle had come to a complete stop. I didn't know if this would be an easy fix for a home mechanic or if it was something more in-depth for a regular mechanic. I just got the vehicle. Thanks for the answer.

2 Replies

SHALAGRE1

MEMBER
4 POSTS

I had this problem and it was a bad computer

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Thursday, October 1st, 2009 AT 7:32 PM

BOWFAN

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16 POSTS

I have this problem on my '98 too and it is very intermittant. It may not happen for 6 months, then may happen twice in two weeks.

It usually clears when the engine is shut off and restarted.

You need to have the computer scanned with a professional model scanner that checks ABS brakes. Most home user code scanner's usually just read the emission trouble codes.

The ABS engaging momentarily is probably the noise you hear, that precedes the trouble lights coming on.

In my case the Snap-on scantool with ABS module indicated there was a stored trouble code for a rear left brake sensor that wasn't communicating with the ABS system. This is often caused by a flaky or loose wiring harness, or possibly a bad hub bearing unit, which contains the sensor. I swapped my rear hubs out with some cheap Chinese made parts and soon after that was when I would get those trouble lights. With the mileage on yours, I would suspect you may need rear hub / bearing units or they may have been replaced recently. That was similar to mine when I started hearing rear bearing noise and decided to replace my hubs.