After having the ABS module rebuilt and restoring normal operation, the ABS light and check engine light both came on... and I subsequently noticed that the cruise control would not engage. The codes led me to bad speed sensor inputs. When I removed the left front tire I discovered the entire sensor cable to be missing a few inches from the sensor... and the same situation at the connector under the auxiliary fuse box. Is there a reasonable theory as to what happened since the mounting grommets were not disturbed in the wheel well and everything was functioning normally up to the point of error codes. The 10mm retainer bolt broke while removing the old sensor, so I am waiting for the PB Blaster to loosen the corrosion before attempting to extract the remaining bolt shaft.

 

Critters?

I had a squirrel get under the hood on my Suburban and it ate every sensor wire on the top of the engine.

...Lee

 

I don't see any sign of rodent activity, like shells or nesting material in the engine compartment, but this seems to be the most likely explanation... just hard to understand the length of wire that is missing from the wheel well to the connector. If it is an animal I wish he'd have gnawed on the retaining bolt, still working to remove the broken bolt shaft... I've broken one extractor and about a dozen drill bits.

 

Is the sensor bad or just the cable. The cable plugs into the sensor at the steerig knuckle and is separate from the sensor, if you don't have to remove the sensor just replace the cable, I picked up a cable end at the local pick and pull and made up a new harness w/ crimp connectors and heat shrink tubing to replace the one may mechanic demoed while doing some suspension work on my 98 V70. If you do have to replace the sensor which doesn't come out easy BTW just slide the new one in place and seal it in w/ RTV sealer and forget about trying to remove the broken retaining bolt worked just fine on my Audi S4 which uses basically the same sensor.

 

... I really appreciate this note. I will try the RTV-as-retainer-hardware idea, it didn't even occur to me, I've gone through several tungsten-coated drill bits, which just seem to make the broken bolt harder