I hate winter. I drive a 1995 Grand Am SE. With all the ice buld-up on the parking lot where I live it is quite bumpy. Anyways about a week ago I drove over this mound of ice and felt it scrape the bottom of my car. Ever since then my ABS light says on and the anti-lock brake don’t work. Otherwise my brakes work fine, they just lock up when I brake on ice or snow. This happened before but the light stayed on only a day or so and then they worked again. Now they don’t work at all and haven’t since a week ago. Any ideas what happened? Why would they stop working for a day and then work again and now not work at all?
I would wager that the antilock sensor (attached to the upper control arm of the suspension?) was damaged…either knocked loose or broken off during the collision with the ice. That or the electronic lead was sheared off.
Should be an easy replacement of parts…for a mechanic.
Could that mound of ice caused a leak in the brake line, or damaged the brake caliper? Has it gotten warm enough to thaw any ice that may still be in your brakes? I would take it to a service station, ask the guy to pull the wheel, and take a look. You should even be able to do that yourself and see what, if any, damage you have to your brake housing.
I think Enola Straight is on the right track. There is a wheel speed sensor at each wheel hub, most likely one of them got its wires knocked off.
While a visual inspection may well identify the problem, it could still be necessary to access the ABS control module to clear the trouble code and reset the system to function. A competent repair shop can do the complete repair.
If something had gone wrong with a mechanical or hydraulic part of the brake system, I would expect a noticeable difference in how the brakes operate, and no ABS light.