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Tucker's Cosmic EP3

Thanks Norv, the steering joint will be my next point of call if I experience any more problems.

The GMB front wheel bearing kits & GMB front lower ball joints arrived today :smt045





So I destroyed the old ball joints when removing the knuckle from the car as I only had a pickle fork separator. I had read this would happen which is why I bought new ones, it's an easier job while I've got it all apart too!



Both inner races stayed on the hubs when they came out so that added a little time to the job as I was going to be re-using the hubs.



New bearings, new ball joints and hub pressed back into position. All now fitted back on the car and the play in the wheel has gone so it seems that the bearing was the cause. The steering now feels a lot more responsive so it was well worth the time and effort.


There is one problem though....the ABS light is now on! #-o I've done some browsing and giving the ABS sensors a clean could be the answer, I did use copper grease when re-fitting it which may have reduced it's amplitude. More expensive causes are a damaged reluctor ring or damage to the wiring/sensor itself so I'm hoping a bit of elbow grease will sort it.
 
Very unlikely to be down to copper grease I'm afraid. My money is on either damaged sensor or incorrect spacing from the pick up ring. I'm not familiar with the bearings on these, do they come conplete with pick up ring fitted or do you have to put the ring on yourself?

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I hope you're wrong mate, could do without the added expense! By pick up ring do you mean reluctor ring, I didn't think the sensor read a ring on the wheel bearing?


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The ring that the sensor picks up from. It's like a_l_l_l_l_ sort of pattern. It's spins with the wheel and it's how the sensor picks up the speed/movement. It should be on the hub flange or wheel bearing somewhere.

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Yep the pick up ring is definitely on the outer cv joint and is just another name for the reluctor ring I was referring to. Incorrect spacing from it is an interesting point but surely once the spindle nut is correctly torqued it should pull everything in to place?


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Ah okay, sorry I'm not 100% on the civic as not had to do many. Some sensors are bushed through a hole with a brass cage around them and you can push them through until they stop - touching the ring (lolz) then when the wheels turn they push the sensor back a tiny amount making the spacing perfect. More modern stuff tends to have a plastic sensor with a little tab which gets bolted to the hub and they don't have any spacing adjustment. Assuming the civic has the latter type? In which case it's looking like the sensor at fault to me.

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An easy test is to check the resistance across the pins on both front sensors from the plug, they should be similar but usually around 1.8 ohms I believe (or is that glow plugs?) either way, measure both and one will either be really high like 4 mega ohms, or have an open circuit.

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Great looking car mate... cosmic is a sweet colour and loving the mods... nice ep3 !!

p.s - ctro is pretty dead nowadays... more so for ep3 owners... much better off on here.
 
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Still haven't had a chance to look into the ABS light issue but I will find some time over the weekend to at least give the sensors a clean up. Today a "Beaks" lower tie bar showed up, it's only a replica off eBay! I'm not paying £100+ for something that makes very little difference, I'll be getting a JDM rear ARB in future to increase the rear end stiffness.

I used a Tegiwa sticker that I had laying around, the Beaks sticker that came with it looked a little dodgy to me.



Wasn't sure which colour to go for but I'm pretty happy with white. Maybe I'll continue with a bit of a white 'theme' and paint the calipers white too....



I was a little too thorough with the cleaning around the bolt once I had them out. I actually removed the protective coating so I'll have to get some Waxoyl and re-do it.
 
Looks like Norv was right, I cleaned up both sensors but after putting everything back the ABS light is still on. From what I gather it should go out automatically if the problem has been sorted, please correct me if I'm wrong and need to reset something!



The surface of the sensor showed signs of damage but was not something I had done in carrying out the work so would have been this way when it was all working fine. I checked both tone/reluctor/pickup rings and there were no cracks from what I could see, only some slight scratching to some of the teeth but again would have been this way before I replaced ball joints and bearings.

As there's no spacing adjustment on these sensors it looks like a damaged sensor is likely to be the problem. Next step is to use an ohmeter to test each sensor's winding and replace if either shows an open or internal short. Ideally I would like the fault codes read to indicate exactly what the problem is but I'm reluctant to pay the fee, any recommendations for a relatively cheap diagnostic kit that will do the job? I've been looking at this.
 
do you have to use longer bolts with the tie bar or spacers, or do the bolts go straight through the brackets and straight against the frame

Thank you
 
Don't think you need to use longer bolts, I didn't! The same bolts worked just fine mate.


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Dmrichards (who I've bought bits from before) has a pair of front abs sensors for sale mate for £30, I'd buy those and just plug them in to make sure the fault goes. Just a heads up.

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Thanks very much for that Norv, much appreciated. I've messaged him to find out if they were from a facelift or pre-facelift, then I'll buy.

Update: Turns out they're from a pre-facelift model, any idea if they will fit? I've read that the plugs can sometimes be different sizes and don't really want to have to DIY the wiring for a part like this.
 
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If it's just the plugs I'd chop the wiring and join the old plug to new sensor with a heatshrink crimp connector. Cheap sensors so haven't got much to lose!

I couldn't say if they are different though. Can he send you a pic to compare?

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I had the same issue as you when I replaced the lower ball joint for my car's MOT last year; I didn't try the cutting and splicing as I wasn't confident with compatibility and instead sourced one from a "breaking EP3" advert on eBay.

I noticed too, with the new (to me) sensor plugged in and not mounted at all, just dangling there, the ABS light still went out on the dash as expected. I would imagine if I started moving the car, it would come back on again but it's a good quick test to make sure your newly acquired sensor works.
 
My full beams were very yellow in comparison to the Xenon headlights so I purchased some Philips Intense White Xenon Effect HB3's on sale at EuroCarParts. They threw in the W5W sidelights for free so I swapped out my LED's for them while I was at it.



There's a nice blue tint to both which I like.



Still nowhere near as white as the actual Xenons but I'm happy with them and it's not like the full beams are used often anyway!



I've ordered a pair of front ABS sensors from a salvage firm which were removed from an '06 Premier Edition that had only done 30,000 miles. They should be with me tomorrow so hopefully they are a direct swap for mine and the ABS light will go out once they're on!
 
Kameleon said:
Could you message me the details of the breaker? I'm after the factory tinted windows from a Premier edition!
Click to expand...

Did you get in touch? I gave them a heads up that you would be calling about the Premier tinted windows.


They sent me 2 OSF ABS sensors by mistake! I got in contact and they sent me a NSF sensor which I now have.

While I was waiting for that to arrive I decided to make a start on improving the engine bay, first up was going to be the inlet manifold cover. I had some VHT Wrinkle Plus paint in Black that I was going to use on the rocker cover but the old man said it was boring! I like a clean, understated look but I had to agree with him as there is plenty of black under the bonnet so I'll have a rethink.



Pleased with how it turned out but now I'm definitely going to have to paint the rocker cover and possibly the inlet manifold as it really shows them up....the list grows again haha!
 
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