More Grand Prix Work

If you've been following the saga that is my Ponticrap Grand Prix you'll know that when I'm not almost getting a ticket, I'm spending time under the hood. In this episode, I battle with an ABS light that has been lit longer than Charlie Sheen. In the pic below you can see the ABS light (among others). It stays on and so does the TRAC OFF light which means no traction control. Oh, did I mention that since I have speed-sensitive steering, this also causes my power steering to go to about 50%. That makes parking a 3200lb car fun.

After a quick scan with the computer and a quick read from Google, I was pretty sure the codes were related to a faulty ABS module. Looking online revealed that the list price was around $1000 for a replacement and, if I wanted a dealership to do the work, another $500 for the install. I'm a cheap bastard so I decided to look around. It seemed my options were about $550 for an aftermarket module, $200+s/h & 2 weeks to have mine rebuilt or try to find a used one from a donor car. Well, the aftermarket one was expensive, I'd be out a car for 2 weeks if I sent mine in so I had to see what was behind door #3. Fortunate for me, the guy who taught me everything I know about fixing cars, Jim, remembered there was a '99 Grand Prix in the junk yard that he had recently scavenged. He was nice enough to head out in 30 degree weather to help me retrieve the part. Now, he is truly the master. As I fumbled with my frozen fingers, his ninja skills were the reason I'm not currently frozen to the hood of the car. I paid my $48 and walked out the door with the module in tow.

When we got back to his place I got a little nervous. The parts had different factory numbers on them. It turns out that there were no less than 6 different ABS modules. To make things more confusing, the GTP had the same controller module from 99-03 but 99 had a different valve module and the wiring harness came from the left instead of the right. Everything I read said the differences were nothing that would prevent me from hooking it up in my car so as I crossed my fingers, I popped the electrical connector from the one mounted in my car to the donor module I had precariously perched near the intake. The picture if confusing but, trust me, there's an ABS module just hanging there. Oh, and I drove around this way for a few short trips to ensure the ABS light stayed off.... and it did.

The next task was pulling out the heart of my brake system. I removed the lines, shimmied out the old module and popped the replacement in it's place. That was the easy part. It was the 30 minutes of bleeding brake lines that about drove me crazy... especially since one brake had a jacked-up bleeder screw. Thanks to help from my wife and brother, I finished bleeding the brakes, put the wheels back on and gave her hell. Let's just say I did a few non-factory tests of the traction and ABS system. It all worked. The light's off for now. I'm still a skeptic so I can't count this a victory until the light's dark for at least a week. That said, thank God for power steering. Now if the ABS module could have only fixed that lead foot induced LOW FUEL light too...