Paging @gearwrench and @FJtest. :grin

 

Sensor ring or sensor? I am guessing that it was the ring that was affected from the sounds of things? Any reasonably good repair shop would know that the bearing or the CV has an ABS sensor ring that must/should be replaced with the affected assembly. Most replacement CV's or bearings will come with a sensor ring! You can test the pick-up/sensor to determine if it is not functioning, but ring should have been replaced regardless! GL

 

Irregardless if that is the correct part number, Ebay has it genuine OEM for $62. TOYOTA Lexus OEM Tacoma Front Left LH ABS Wheel Speed Sensor 89543-04020 | eBay

 

Before spending money replacing the sensor get the codes read and make sure it's a ABS sensor code. More than likely it is since one of three things happened:
1) With the wheel bearing being as bad as it was it damaged the sensor.
2) The tech working on the bearing didn't remove the ABS sensor wire retainer bolts, giving some slack in the wire while moving the spindle around, and broke the ABS wire which is very fine and easily damaged.
3) The tech damaged the sensor while installing new bearing.
Only one of the three can you really prove because the others would need verified prior to repair. If your lights were on when you got it towed it is probably the sensor(refer to #1 ). If the wires damaged then #2 applies.
I looked on line and these fkn things ain't cheap but Advance Auto has some that are cheaper, I don't know anything about these sensors nor have I ever used them just a fast search.
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...pex-abs-speed-sensor-n6030230291pex/10848994-P?navigationPath=L1*14921|L2*15007
Good luck with this and keep us posted.

 

If the wheel bearing got bad enough, it will eat the wheel speed sensor, I know from experience. :crying

I can almost guarantee that's what happened if the Christmas lights came on before the bearing was fixed. The sensors are brittle plastic and if the bearing actually hits it while turning (because it has lots of play), it will break it.

FJ cruiser wheel bearings use a magnetoresistive wheel speed sensor and the "tone" ring is a magnetic strip inside the bearing. This sensor design is super reliable except when the wheel bearing fails

 

You guys are right. I did not mention that the lights were there prior to having to get it towed, thus the bearing destroyed the sensor. easy to replace? Im assuming just remove the wheel and look around on the back for a sensor thing and remove the bolt insert new one and plug it back up?

Thanks guys

 

I'd recommend replacing BOTH the sensor & cable with OEM Toyota parts.

If you had a catastrophic wheel bearing failure, the sensor is almost certainly destroyed, and the cable may have been damaged during the wheel bearing replacement. A damaged cable can create a hard-to-pinpoint intermittent condition, so better to just replace it.

Make sure that the seating surface where the sensor mounts is spotlessly clean so the sensor-to-tone-ring clearance is correct.

(That wheel bearing MUST have given you plenty of advance audible warning that it was slowly dying, didn't it? A total failure like that could have been really bad news if you were 30 miles into a rocky trail.)

 

Yes dummy me was listening to that grinding for weeks. Trying to put it off til the next paycheck. Good lesson learned

 

Where did you get the wheel bearing? I've seen issues with cheapies from the parts stores, autogeek, rock auto, etc. The problem lies with the offset of the tone ring on them, and the OE Toyota ones are in the right location on the bearing. That may be where the problem lies.

 

Shop got the bearing. They are usually pretty good about getting OEM parts and have advised me to do the same.

 

Not sure about the OP, but my bearing failure story....Original Toyota bearing with 30k mi on vehicle (about 25k since lift and 35s).

I noticed the vehicle wandering on the highway (no noise, no vibration), thought it might be alignment or tire weights come off and wheels unbalanced. Wandering got progressively worse over the next few days (still no noise or vibration). While on my way to work, vehicle swerved on its own, made it to work and lifted the front end with the forklift to check it, at which point I could see the play in bearing by rocking the wheel at 12 and 6, it was bad, real bad.
I lived 5mi from work and there was an auto parts store on my way home, so I decided to risk it and drive real slow. On the way to the auto parts store, started making grinding noise, (couldn't feel the grinding though). Got to auto parts store, got a bearing, and headed home. Grinding noise got worse, now I could feel it, felt like the wheel was going to fall off. About 2mi from home, the wheel speed sensor got eaten and the dash lit up. I was tired and figured I couldn't do any more damage so I continued home (this was wrong, I could have done much more damage). Luckily I made it home without further issue.

I changed the driver side wheel bearing the next day with a Moog that I got the night before at the auto parts store, but since I had to wait a few days until I could get a new wheel speed sensor from the dealer, I ended up ordering/building a brand new Toyota hub/bearing/wheel studs assembly and swapped it in and kept the Moog as a trail spare. Passenger side wheel bearing had no play at all in it, but I replaced it anyways.

25k mi later passenger side had a little play in it, so I put the moog in it, and bought another Moog for the driver side from the auto parts store because of warranty (oem is 12months, moog is lifetime, and I know I'll be replacing them again)

 

Hey Guys could you give me your thoughts i have a similar problem but having trouble resetting light to test theory.

Brake, ABS, & Traction lights are on the dashboard. Toyota dealership did OBD Scan and said rear right speed sensor needed replaced. I ordered the part and installed myself but code never went away.

Does anyone know if the code should dissapear by itself if issue resolved or does it require a manual reset?

I was reading that the OBD scanner reset does not reset ABS lights. I tried disconnecting the battery. I also tried jumping some wires and pumping brakes 8 times from another forum and that didnt seem to work either.

Dealership will not reset the light for me to test if it comes back on and want to charge me to take further look to see if wheel bearing needs replaced. Sigh.

2011 FJ 120K miles

@gearwrench @FJtest

 

Disconnecting the battery should clear the codes. That means if the dash lights come back one, there's still a problem. Did you buy a new Denso part when you replaced the sensor? Did you have problems removing the old sensor? Does your FJ have a suspension lift?

 

@Kaiju Thanks for the input that's very helpful. No issues with replacing the sensor, it was aftermarket part but should do the trick. I'm wondering if it might be the wire harness or something now then?

I put a 4 inch lift on it. I wonder if the harness got stretched and wires got too tight or something. I inspected the wire harness and its not tight or showing any signs or breakage or stress anywhere.

 

A 4 inch lift is pretty extreme and can stretch the sensor wire harness and internally break the copper conductor. Then you have an open circuit and a trouble code. Norm356 has the correct suggestion to check the continuity of that section of sensor harness between the suspension and body, where it's very likely to have been overstretched and broken. The damage won't show from just looking at the wire.

 

Appreciate your input. If it was stretched at the time of installation i'm surprised its only giving me trouble now because its been on for a year and i haven't traversed anything that would let her stretch her legs enough to cause issues. I've ordered a new wire harness so will give that a go and hopefully get me squared away.

 

It could've taken some driving before a break in the conductor occurred if the sensor wire was under tension due to a lift. One pothole or speed bump later and the wire separated internally. It wouldn't have necessarily broken at the time the lift was installed. If you do find a bad wire harness, figure out a way to route it better so it won't get stretched again.

 

marsbars -
The insulation on the sensor wiring is elastic and can stretch, while the copper conductor can't.

If the sensor wiring was ever put under severe tension, it's possible for the inner conductor to break, while the insulation doesn't. When the tension is released, the insulation tries to return to its original length, and can pull the ends of the broken conductor back into (intermittent) electrical contact. This makes it hard to troubleshoot unless you put tension on the wire while you measure end-to-end resistance or continuity.

I's suggest verifying the continuity of ALL the wiring from the sensor up to the Skid Control ECU. If an open circuit or high resistance is found, check the extension cable from both rear wheel ABS sensors to the main wiring harness.

You need to be careful about interpreting OBD codes. Did the dealer specifically say the rear ABS sensor was confirmed to be defective and for you to replace it, or did they say there was some problem with the ABS sensor signal?

The OBD system usually isn't smart enough to tell you that a given sensor is actually defective. It can tell you that an ECU is receiving a signal from a sensor, but the signal quality doesn't meet some minimum or maximum value that's programmed into the ECU. Or it may tell you that there is an open or short circuit in the wiring to the sensor, or that a specific reference voltage that the sensor needs to operate is outside of a specified range.

So you just have to be very careful about assuming that an OBD code that's linked to a particular sensor means that the sensor itself is defective .... the root cause could be a wiring fault, high resistance (or leakage current) in a wet or corroded connector, an intermittent connection influenced by suspension movement, etc.

The 'new harness' you ordered is #89516, shown below?

 

Thanks ya that makes sense. Man i'm super bummed though i ordered that #89516 rear harness and installed it easy peasy but even after disconnecting the positive and negative terminals on battery for a couple minutes and reconnecting and driving around the block still have lights on dash. So now the rear right sensor was replaced and all the wiring to it.

The dealership specifically said the rear right. I'll post some pictures of when i borrowed an OBD Reader before i installed the new wire harness. It also references rear right.

 

Anyone have any ideas? I'm about out.. only thing i can think of is if its not resetting properly but i disconnected the battery for a few minutes that should do the trick i would think.

 

Has the wiring harness been thoroughly tested for continuity all the way from the skid control ECU in the engine bay to the sensor connector at the right rear wheel?

You may want to read through this post for the wiring information. The OP had to finally have the rear bearing replaced to clear the code after all efforts at troubleshooting failed to find the issue. The magnetic tone ring is built into the bearing and if it can't be read by the sensor, a code will be thrown.

https://www.fjcruiserforums.com/threads/abs-sensor-code-dash-lights.763068/post-9595006

 

I did put wheel spacers on i wonder if they would have caused any issues with that.

 

At this point, since the wiring has been replaced and I assume you checked it's continuity between the sensor and ECU, either there is metallic debris inside by the sensor/bearing area interfering with the magnetic pickup, or the new rear bearing was counterfit and has no built in tone ring at all, or it was damaged during the install contaminating the tone ring with metal debris, requiring another bearing replacement unfortunately. Resetting it will not fix it if any of that is the case.