2001 Sable: Maintenance & Upgrades

[Kaze 0]

I believe this is the forum I want to post in. I'm going to update this thread everyone once in a while with work I do to the car, as well as things that come up and have my a bit confused.

So lets start with yesterday's work, and whats next on the list.

[Mountain of Parts: New Front Disc Rotors, New Front Brake Pads, New Front Bearing/Hub Assemblies, New Lower Ball Joints, and Power Antenna (Upgrade)]

Yep, a lot of parts bought and installed yesterday. As you can tell from the list of parts, "Suki" (my Sable), needed new lower ball joints and a new bearing (we couldn't tell which side so we did both to be safe). It was about time for new pads and rotors so I decided to handle that too since we were gonna work in that area. (btw the old rotors would still be good with just a turning/resurfacing, I just like new shiny parts lol... dunno how many of you would be interested, just thought it was worth mentioning.)

[inspecting the ABS Sensor, which lately have been giving me concern (see further down for description)]

[New Rotor, Lower Ball Joint (PAIN IN THE *** to remove/ install), and hub/bearing]

[New Pads put in, just before completely re-installing]

All that work was on one side, from the parts you can tell my cousin and I did both sides. The biggest pain aside from getting the ball joint out was getting the knuckle out to reach the hub bolts.

[Video of Endplay with new bearings, I'm barely pushing this wheel, scraping is the new rotor cause brakes haven't been pumped]

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So what's going to happen next is what I need help with. I have a few problems I don't know how to approach based solely on the OBDII codes.

ABS has been giving me weird problems, I think I posted before, but it's ever so rarely turning off on me. In the middle of driving it'll turn on the brake warning light (same light when ebrake is on), the TCS will illuminate "OFF", and the ABS warning light illuminates. Moments later it'll just shut off and nothing really happens.

I've pulled the following OBDII codes from my Sable:

B1342 - Antilock Brake Control module malfunction.

B1249 - Air Conditioning Electronic Blend Door actuator malfunction.

C1225 - Lamp Brake warning output circuit short.

B1426 - Seat Belt Warning Lamp circuit short to battery.

B1325 - Door Ajar Warning Light short circuit to battery.

Any Ideas? My cousin believe the computers for either the gauge cluster is starting to fail/act up, and/or the ABS computer.

Edited March 20, 2011 by Kaze

[Bull Geek 812]

The combo ABS/Traction control box is known to have issues...I don't think anyone has ever posted what the problem is, but replacement of the box seems to "fix" it.

How did you know you needed new wheel bearings?

[Kaze 0]

My cousin figured replacement of the box would be the answer, looks like that's next on the list.

As for the bearings, for the last two weeks or so, while driving, there was a bad, rythymatic vibration i was feeling in through the gas pedal. The thing was that the rythym wasn't really increasing with the speed of the car, so speculation was a bad tie rod (previously noted wheel wobble on the passenger side), or it was the axel or something along the drivetrain. When my and my cousin lifted up the front end and looked around, we noticed wobble in both wheels, one worse than the other (driver side worse) and when we looked at the lower ball joints they were just chewed up and loose. We went further with investigating the wheels and when we were rotating the driver side wheel by hand you could hear and feel a bit of grinding. My guess is if I crack open the bearing/hub assembly i'll find a shattered ball bearing.

The car rides really smooth right now, the vibration is completely gone.

[firespirit 7]

Hm. You got that all from Advance.

[Kaze 0]

Yes I did, my cousin gets discounts here and there at certain auto part stores. Is there a problem with Advanced? lol

[Brian_05_SEL 1412]

Yes I did, my cousin gets discounts here and there at certain auto part stores. Is there a problem with Advanced? lol

That's gonna be a pretty long list.

[goodguitar5150 37]

That's gonna be a pretty long list.

Lets see it then Brian! I call the bluff

If I KNOW I am going to do work on my car I will use rockauto.com , but if I am in a pinch I dont mind going to a place like that Though I generally go to Autozone first... I would Love to go to NAPA all the time but holy hell those prices make me feel like a Semite...

[Brian_05_SEL 1412]

Lets see it then Brian! I call the bluff

If I KNOW I am going to do work on my car I will use rockauto.com , but if I am in a pinch I dont mind going to a place like that Though I generally go to Autozone first... I would Love to go to NAPA all the time but holy hell those prices make me feel like a Semite...

Just teasing Ashley a little bit by knocking Advance Auto. I generally do shop at parts stores like Advance, AutoZone, O'Reilly's, or NAPA if I need to get something over the counter, especially generic stuff like shop supplies, fluids, filters, etc. Otherwise, RockAuto.com is a much better source for buying new parts. What bothers me about the part store chains is a disturbing lack of knowledge or enthusiasm among the staff (in general). Not everyone, mind you, but the ones who clearly don't know anything but how to ring the register and when to take their smoking breaks make it hard for me to trust that they'll sell me the right item.

I usually just bring in a part # for what I'm looking for and ask for it at the counter without any BS. When I did my rear disc brake mod, every part got looked up as a '1998 Taurus SHO' at AutoZone and the associate kept asking me why I was giving him the wrong info, because my '05 was parked outside. I explained that they're the same platform and the parts will swap directly, and he said 'no way, they look totally different'.

I went to another store with the rest of my shopping list.

[Bull Geek 812]

It's easier to lie and say your other car is a 1998 Taurus SHO. They don't know any different.

[Brian_05_SEL 1412]

Meh, I wasn't expecting to need to lie about it, so that didn't even occur to me. I gave him part numbers for the ABS sensors, hub nuts, and pads to look up and pull from the stock room. It shouldn't have been a hassle.

[Bull Geek 812]

Yes it is much better providing the part numbers so you can roll in and out quickly. Nothing worse that bubba gump trying to tell you/or sell you something else.

[firespirit 7]

Yes it is much better providing the part numbers so you can roll in and out quickly. Nothing worse that bubba gump trying to tell you/or sell you something else.

Bubba Gump? Do I look like a Bubba Gump to you?

And Kaze, there is nothing wrong with Advance because I work there.

[Brian_05_SEL 1412]

Bubba Gump? Do I look like a Bubba Gump to you?

Not at all, Ash.

[Guest Sabaka]

It certainly ain't like the good ol' days when the auto parts store was independently owned and staffed with people that actually knew the parts of a car.

[outatyme 17]

what kind of OBD scanner did you use to pull the Bxxxx codes? those are ford proprietary codes. Need to use something like NGS or WDS or IDS to pull those. Either way Sounds like you have a short in the wire harness under the drivers carpet / foot area or bad solder points in the GEM.

[Jeff K 1]

^^^^^^^ High end consumer / indy shop scan tools can pull all those codes. My PC based Autoenginuity scan tool with enhanced Ford package can pull all Ford codes (P, C, B, U) both generic ( X0xxx) and manufacturer specific (X1xxx, X2xxx), as well as run all on demand tests, access mode 6, etc.

Edited March 22, 2011 by Jeff K

[Bull Geek 812]

Bubba Gump? Do I look like a Bubba Gump to you?

And Kaze, there is nothing wrong with Advance because I work there.

We need to clone you and place you in some of these local auto parts stores. Too many bubba gumps and dee dee dees are hired around here.

I know you know your s**t

[Brian_05_SEL 1412]

We need to clone you and place you in some of these local auto parts stores. Too many bubba gumps and dee dee dees are hired around here.

I know you know your s**t

The world needs more Ashley.

[firespirit 7]

We need to clone you and place you in some of these local auto parts stores. Too many bubba gumps and dee dee dees are hired around here.

I know you know your s**t

lol, thank you. But also to be fair, a lot of people (at least in my store) come in thinking they know everything but when, in reality, they know nothing. We get it from both sides here, guys.

[Kaze 0]

outatyme - I'll ask my cousin about his OBD, but his computer is huge it's the size of about the center of the steering wheel on my sable.

I laughed when I first saw the codes cause that mean I'm officially have electrical problems before anything major mechanical.