Hello I was hoping I could get some help on my brakes issue I have with my car. I'll give as much details as I can.

car has abs and traction control. Delco VI abs system.

I bought the car about a year ago from a dealer. we traded a farm tractor for it (car was actually worth a little more than the tractor). I got a 3 month warranty on it and in the first few months the transmission was replaced and shortly after I found that the shifter wasn't attached to it (try putting a car in park when the lever only sees drive and neutral). got that fixed up and and few months later when winter came I found I was sliding on the ice a bit more than I did with my old car and just chucked it up to crappy tires or olds not having that great of an abs system. Then about 4 weeks ago my anti-lock brake light came on along with my brake light. I began looking to see what could be wrong and I noticed quiet a bit of rust on my rear brakes. I jacked the car up and the brakes where deffently not working for my back end. I checked the emergency brake and that worked fine so I knew brake pads and calapers where fine.

My father and I have been checking all kinds of stuff including bleeding the brakes, we got no fluid at all. I also checked the brake lines and they looked fine (no kinks anywhere or anything of such). We decided to take the brake lines off at the abs unit and got no fluid there either for the rear brakes.

I took it back to the place I bought it from and they did a tech scan on it and found 3 errors in the brake system. C1236 low system voltage, C1246 rear channel will not move, and C1286 brake control module turned on red brake light.

I suspect the third error is caused by the second one. I couldn't do any more than that because they wanted to charge more for more stuff being done than just getting the codes.

I thought about getting another new used module for $60 off of ebay but wasn't sure if that would solve the issue or not and the unit on ebay doesn't have traction control where my car does. Can I put a non traction control module (whole assembly) on a car that had traction control and everything be ok? I realize the traction control would be disabled at that point.

also can i take the ABS module off and just use the car without it till I get it all sorted out? I might be able to repair the problem myself if I knew exactly where it was but I can't seem to find nearly enough information about the system. The big issue is I need to use the car daily and inspection is in a month.

Any help that can be provided would be greatly appericated (sp).

 

This is just a guess, but do you think the low syatem voltage could be causing the C1246 code? I would try to trace that one down first, since without the correct electrical power, you probably won't get anywhere with the others.
The easiest thing to do would be checking all the electrical connectors for the abs module for corrosion, chafed/broken wiring, etc. Next, trace the wires back as far as you can, again looking for the same problems.
You might try local junkyards for an abs module that matches your car. I would not try to fit the non-traction control one, you may end up with more problems. For one thing, your traction off light would be on, would that cause you to fail inspection?

 

Friend recommended I get the codes cleared out for that vary reason (the low voltage might be causing the other issue). He thinks that might be an old code and not actually part of the issue going on now. This would help determine if thats the case or if thats the cause.

also I found this yesterday searching for more information.

http://www.carquest.com/common/downl...akeCQB9817.pdf

its a pdf stating that there is a problem with that vary motor and the piston going bad. So after I clear the codes out if the low voltage isn't there any more I'm going to take out the abs and either replace or repair it. With the abs off my car will be able to pass inspection and I'll have rear brakes again. When I am done fixing the unit I will be able to put it back on and all should be good.

 

Let us know how it goes!

 

How is this project going? I found this tonight: http://www.ricksfreeautorepairadvice.../ABSLight.html

It describes the abs module, and tells how to get it apart and fix it.

 

we took everything apart and the motor in the abs seemed fine. though there was a big issue with some green 'slime' in the whole system. Also the rear piston seemed tight for a bit and after a bit of working got it freed up. after doing this we heard some stuff moving around in the abs unit that we felt shouldn't have been moving.

either way after a bit of cleaning we put it all back together in the position that a manual said to go with and was able to put it back on and get rear brakes. though the abs unit is still not working. I'm going to take it to a shop in a week or two and have the errors cleared out. it is at least working much better than it had been. next step will be to get a used motor pack and replace the middle motor (rear) and see if that works.

I have a lot of information on this abs unit as well as pictures of it all apart. i'll try to get some of that posted when I get a free moment in the next week.