all at the same freaking time today. any idea what could cause all 3 of these at the same time?

 

The rear axle ABS sensor on 98~2000 Rangers does double duty for the ABS and for the vehicle speed signal. While it is not 100% sure, it is very common for a failed sensor to give you no speedo, an ABS light and PCM code P0500 with a CEL. A new sensor costs around $20 and is easy to swap.

 

that actually sounds about right. i was turning into a parking spot today and i heard a crunching sound that sounded like it came form the rear axle.

thanks!!!

 

I was going to say, Why would the diff just decide to crunch the sensor?

 

Well if you have a piece of metal in the differential that came up and hit that there's what killed the sensor but I have seen them once or twice or different trucks where the plastic housing of the sensor actually deteriorated and fell in the case.

 

does anyone have a pic of the location of this thing? my spedo started working again for liek 5 seconds the other day so i think it may just be a dirty sensor or bad connection. hopefully i won't have to replace it. any pics? how hard of a job is this to get to?

 

I think its bad karma from that stupid joke

 

so i ended up pulling the rear abs sensor... wtf am i supposed to be checking here?

 

It doesn't look overly bad, so I'd be on internal failure. Just replace it.

 

well i replaced it and now the ABS light is off.... but the spedometer is still out and the check engine light is still on

guess it's possible the three weren't related... but that seems highly unlikely considering that they all came on at about the same time.

 

scratch that.... spedometer works, abs light is off

check engine light is still on

 

Pull the battery cable for a few minutes to reset the pcm.

If the CEL comes back get the codes pulled and post them here.

 

removed the battery cable and the terminal holder broke (doh)

bought a new one, hooked it up, and the check engine light is GONE!!

thanks to everyone for the help!