ABS problem in 06 STI

Hi Guys,

So a week prior to purchasing my 2006 Subaru WRX STI the front left abs sensor wire got damaged. This caused the abs to stop working and the warning light came on.

As the deal had been going on for some time and the previous owner agreed to pay for the repair cost we continued with the deal.

I now sit with the problem of finding the problem. We went to someone who had a spare sensor which we plugged in and reset the error however the car did not pick up the sensor. Following this i went to another mechanic who checked the signal at the plug and says its not picking up a reading at the plug.
However this does not fully make sense.

My question is,
1. could the sensors broken wire have caused a problem further down the steam?
2. Is there a specific procedure to be done prior to the car recognizing a new sensor? (Explaining why the one fitted was not picked up, or it could of been faulty)
3. How can I verify/check what the mechanic is suggesting about the problem? Surely if the error is showing you wont pick up a signal at the plug?
4. Should i take the gamble and order a new sensor from subaru myself and hope for the best?

Basically the ABS sensor is just a magnetic on/off switch. The ABS computer in the car reads the on off intervals and how long it takes between each on/off sequence and based on that the ABS computer can determine how fast that wheel is spinning.
Now that the logic lesson is over try the following. Get a volt meter that can check for continuity. Place the car on jack stands and disconnect the connector in the wheel well. Place one of each of the probes on each prong in the connector, that goes to the wheel. At this point slowly spin the wheel affected while looking at the volt meter. As you spin the wheel it should go from no continuity to no resistance. If the reading does not change while slowly spinning the wheel it means the sensor or the abs ring on the axel is bad.

Problem is that the sensor wires are damaged so there is definitely a problem there and it needs replacing all i need is to verify the extent of the problem before i start spending

where are the wires damaged on the sensor side of the connector or the wiring harness side of the connector?

Sensor side.
What happens is that the guys who installed the coil over suspension didn't connect the abs wire when they finished
Then it must of hooked on something and ripped off.
I currently have a bug eye sensor in but its not compatible, now its just in to keep the hole clean.

Is there any chance that a short in the sensor wire could off caused other problems?

When installing a new sensor what's the procedure?

Just install the new sensor. Additionally until you get the new sensor, pull the abs fuse so that the abs system does not try and do any funny things on you. When to do this be careful when driving your car as the abs will be turned off.


When new sensor arrives, install it and put the fuse for abs back in. Should be good to go at that point.


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I will pull down the FSM instructions in a bit for you


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Great thanks, i currently have 0 abs, slid over about two red lights at night due to not being able to stop and wheels jus locked up.

I take it the Auto DCCD function will also not work perfectly because it cant read the wheel speed.

What multi-meter functions do you use, I'm looking at purchasing one now as well.

Here's the FSM for the front abs system. Let me know if you need the rear ones.
















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Does anyone possibly have the pin layouts for the plug connecting to the abs ecu? Need to do fault finding on my wiring

Piper86 said:

Does anyone possibly have the pin layouts for the plug connecting to the abs ecu? Need to do fault finding on my wiring

Click to expand...

I will see if I can find a pin out later for your ecu.


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Thanks man.
It makes no sense to me that the ecu is faulty. This was one guys analysis. Because how cone the car can reset the fault and when you start driving only the abs light re-appears and its picking up all the wheels except the one. So now i just want to test the wires leading to the sensor itself as i think and hope this will sort out the problem... long with a new sensor then

Okay I'm biting the bullet and buying an new abs sensor from subaru, getting ordered from Japan.
We have checked the wires from the ecu plug to the sensor plug and it seems to be fine.
I just hope this will sort out the problem.
The question has been asked, could it not be the abs ecu also. My question to that is how can it be? How can you design a system where the abs sensor wire get damaged and then bombs out the ecu. This does not make sense
Also, when clearing the error code, you are able to clear and the. You drive and pick up signal from all 3 sensors except LF, surely if the ecu was stuffed this would not be possible?

Any words of wisdom on this?

Finally got my ABS sorted, now my car ca. Break! Time for better tyres then disks and pads