06 Mountaineer ABS light HELP
 

I have an 06 mountaineer with the 4.0 V6, lately the ABS light and traction control light (car with skids behind it) have come on and a wrench is indicated in the info box. They eventually clear after a while but today my wife called and told me that it seemed like the front right tire wanted to lock up and hesitated. We have had some severe weather here in NJ so would this have anything to do with it? What could be some things I would do to get this fixed? Any help would be great, I am not mechanically inclined so I don't want to get screwed by a shop that does more than what is needed. Thank you very much in advance.

First off, check the brake fluid levels. Make sure it's where it should be. If it's low, you could have air in the lines and just need to bleed the brakes (and find the leak). As for other issues, I'm afraid that's about the extent of my ABS knowledge. I'm pretty sure the traction control is tied in with the ABS system so the issues are probably related. I know I've had issues with one wheel trying to lock up trying to stop when I've had air in the lines before and with an ABS system, that can cause the ABS to not work at all.

It does seem to be tied in to the traction control, that would explain why the traction control icon is displayed with the ABS icon. I checked the fluid levels and it was in between the minimum and maximum, the shop I went to (and halfway trust) said that it could be as simple as a brake system flush, could also be a wheel speed sensor (?) or an ABS module. Does this sound feasible?

Also, I've noticed that the ABS icon will be displayed and the car will hesitate on acceleration after it's been parked for 20 minutes or longer, this will happen for a short time and the ABS and the traction control icon will be permanently displayed, does this disable the traction control altogether? Will resetting the computer by disconnecting the negative side of the battery help anything? Forgive my ignorance, just trying to get a grip on this stuff. Thank again Slymer....

resetting the computer won't help. The only things that disable the ABS (which will hinder or disable the traction control since it uses the ABS system) are problems with the ABS system. Resetting the computer won't fix that. The problem has to be fixed. Hesitation on acceleration sounds like there could be vacuum issues and/or airflow issues. Is there something clogging the air filter? Check the vacuum lines that go to the brake booster (big can that the master cylinder is mounted on - there should be one vacuum hose about an inch around that goes to it). The check valve on the booster may be suspect as well. Check all around for vacuum hoses that have come loose.

And yes, it could be a wheel speed sensor (pulling the codes from the computer may tell this tale) or the ABS module. It could also be a loose wire harness to any of the wheel sensors or the ABS module. Sometimes in wet weather, water gets into some harnesses and causes corrosion which can make the connections resistive and cause issues like this. You may need to check all the related electrical connections and make sure they're in good condition.

I checked and all the connections seem to be ok, I'll have to take it in to someone who can read the codes and see what comes of it. It's a fairly decent shop so I trust what they come up with, I'll post here in a bit with what they find. Hopefully nothing to expensive, although my luck seems to run pretty pricey. Thank you for all your help.