This is kind of a long story so I'll start here. A week ago I replaced my ball joints and after I had everything put back together my ABS light was on. I assumed that I may have damaged one or both of the sensors on the knuckle when I did the job. I drove it like that all week and then today as I was getting on the highway, my speedo, odometer, and cruise control stopped working and my check engine light came on as well. From what I have been reading most people say it's a bad VSS sensor on the rear axle but to me that seems like a hell of a coincidence that the VSS would be bad just after I did my ball joints and the ABS light came on. Is there any way that the front sensors for the ABS could trigger something like this to happen? I know that the VSS on the rear axle also deals with ABS so that's why I'm suspicious. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

 

It could be. On 4WABS/4WD vehicles the VSS is read by the ABS module and converted and then sent to the instrument cluster/computer/cruise servo.

On 2wd it goes to the GEM first to be converted.

Have you checked the connections to the wheel speed sensors yet? Is there a proper gap between the sensor and the exciter ring? Make sure there is no debris on the sensor tip.

 

After further investigation, I found that the copper wire on one of the sensors is all messed up. I ordered a new sensor on Saturday so we will see if that fixes the problem.

 

Well this whole problem turned into a huge pain in the ***... Ended up replacing both wheel bearings up front because there was no sensors for my year that would fit my original wheel bearings... Weird I know. After I replaced the wheel bearings I was still getting the ABS light but the speedo came back on. I took a chance and replaced the VSS on the rear axle and that got rid of the ABS light! I still cant believe that this all started from a lower ball joint replacement.

 

Hopefully this will help someone in the future haha