2000 Mits Galant with 2.4L 4G64

When Antilock/ABS light is off, and I hit the brakes, they chatter as if I am skidding (but I'm not). It sounds like the ABS thinks I'm skidding so it activates. Seems to happen at lower speeds.

It seems to stay off when first starting the car, then after a few minutes (5?), it comes back on. When the light is on, no ABS at all.

Mechanic says the passenger sensor was bad.

When he showed me the part (insulation was worn and wire was exposed on the wire), it made sense that the Anti lock light would come on every once and a while when it was wet outside.

In the end, before I finally took it in to get fixed, Anti lock light was staying on more than off, but I thought it was b/c we had snow recently.

He replaced the passenger sensor, but the light stayed on. Couldn't clear it. He even tried disconnecting the battery.

Mech. was stumped so he then went to another shop with my car and found the code (22? 23??) said it was the driver sensor too. He replaced that and tried to clear it. Light still stays on.

Last consensus was that it was the circuit board for the Anti lock Brake motor/pump and that it could cost $800 to replace. That doesn't make sense to me.

If its the board, why would it work sometimes, in the wrong times, but not at others?

Has anyone ever heard of this and can someone please offer some advice as to cause and possible fix.

Your answer: mr249980 the abs hydraulic unit is probably bad. I asked some of the Mitsu techs that I work with and that is the general consensus. Hope this helps.

yeah but you didnt give him the bad news. that unit is pretty pricey. a board would make sense to me because its giving intermittant signal. other things that would make sense to me is the air gap between the wheel speed sensor and the pickup sensor on the wheel rotating assembly (where ever it picks it up. I'm not too familiar with the abs system of a mitsubishi). a real mitsubishi tech would be able to pull the codes with an hds and it will tell them where the system is failing. if it says anything about an air gap then I would investigate where the w.s.s. was reading wheel speed and if the sensor is even pointing at the right spot.

we had an identical situation on a vehicle at my old shop. we replaced the speed sensor the rotors the harness and the module. eventually we had the wheel off and i noticed the sensor was pointing at the edge of the rotor instead of the reluctor wheel. just a little bit of alternative thinking on the problem. good luck!

Yep...I'm hearing that it may be $800 or so to fix.

I'm having someone else look at it on the 27th. He thinks he can do it for half...we'll see.

Thanks for the advice on the sensor. Was that on a Galant as well? Doesn't sound like so. Did the readings say it was the board?

First mechanic checked the sensors, and got readings, but didn't have the device to pull/clear codes for a Galant. But maybe the sensors aren't pointing where they should be...I'll make sure to ask.

no it was not on a mitsubishi. it wasnt even on a car it was on a motorhome. the symptoms are identical and the abs systems work similarly on all vehicles. there computer needs to know how fast the vehicle is traveling to be able to determine the amount of pressure to apply to the brakes. the motorhome used a system called WABCO. I don't know what kind mitsubishi uses but there is a wheel speed sensor on all 4 wheels and their input directly effects the opperating of the abs system. if one sensor gives a screwy reading the computer will interpret as such and give faultly braking. until the point where the parameters are so far out of wack the check light comes on. then the system will shut off and opperate normally. I'm not saying its definetly not the computer but its worth a look at the sensors.

Its fixed!

Turns out is was another bad ABS sensor. Got it fixed for under $150

Not sure but maybe its an aftermarket one that was used?

Either way, I'm glad I got this fixed at much less the cost of what I was first told.