Weird things Happening Please Help Me On This One! ABS\Dash Warning Lights

[Street Hawk]

Hi All,

I have a Vectra LS 2.0DTi on a 03 Plate..

some weird things are happening with my car and i need to work out wdf is going on with it and its left me baffled!

1). ABS ISSUES....

My ABS and Skidding? Triangle light are lit up on my Dashboard and is intermitent. not ignoring the problem, i went to a garage and had a diagnostics run on the Car. diagnostics found nothing wrong. the light miracoulsly disappeared when i arrived at the garage. soon as i pulled away from the garage it came back on so, i swung the car around and went back to get it re-tested. it found the following...

"C0035 Front Left Wheel Speed Sensor Open Circuit"

would i be right in thinking this is a ABS Sensor issue and it needs replacing? also do you have to replace the entire hub just to replace the sensor?

2). Braking ISSUES

The brake pedal appears to be gritty/grinds.. when i brake. (apologies in advance, im absolutley crap at describing things) and at times.. when braking the brake pedal goes a quarter of the way down..(appears and feels normal when the pads are engaging the discs as they should do) and then the pedal drops another half way down like it fell off the face of the earth and then re-engages again. its as if you have let go of the brake and re-applied them again. trying to explain this to the garage was bad enough without them looking at you as if your some nut! but when they drove the car down the road it never happened and said everything is normal. however less than 3 months ago i had brand new discs and pads fitted. i never had this braking issue before that time. its weird! im not sure if this has something to do with the ABS and ive not paid much attention to this issue whilst the ABS lights are on the dash.. would the ABS do something like this? could it be related? any light on this issue would be great please guys.. as its hard to find a garage that are very expirenced in Vauxhall's unless i pay through the nose at £75 per hour with the dealers just to look at the issue.

3). Random lights decide to appear on my dashboard and then sod off again.. not sure what the crack is there.. but randomly and frequently a few lights decide they want to make an appearence such as ..

*Warning Triangle with the car in the middle and skid marks* - This usually appears in 3rd gear.. accelerating between 20-30mph the car then power lags to compensate for wheel spinning? then once it thinks its stopped wheel spinning it behaves & drives normally.

*A Picture of a car with a large spanner through the middle of it, would appear and then disappear again*

*Bulb out light pops up on the dash, yet i check the lights all round the car and they're all working fine*

Could my ECU be Screwed or something? the car hasnt had any modifications to it other than the wheels and the DVD player headrests installed but they only needed a power supply which i spliced the rear cigarette lighter cable and connected them to that with a fuse & they have been working fine since ive had the car so nothing new has been added to the motor since these problems have started occuring.

would i need to have my ECU firmware or something updated? surely there must be a decent Vauxhall specialist reasonably priced in the North East so i DONT have to get mugged off my the Main Dealers?

any help would be much appreciated.. although my explinations on things may have confused you even more, its obvious im clueless about cars huh?

Thanks in advance

Street.

[AntSSSS]

I would be replacing the wheel sensor first as you know that is at fault.

This will have a knock on effect for the ABS function which is likely to be the juddery brake pedal - plus will also effect the traction control (the warning triangle wioth car and skid lines), so get the wheel sensor(s) replaced and go from there.

Bulb warning could be something as simple as bulb bing on its way out - common for the cars to report they are out before they are.

Spanner warning is telling you you have a DTC present - which you know to be your wheel sensor.

HTH

[wildchild]

Have you changed any wheels/tyres at all recently???
Gaz

[simplesi]

try cleaning the sensor plugs first on that wheel with some contact cleaner there known for getting dirt and stuff in them , i had this on my old 2.2direct ,cleaned the plug and it sorted it hth