This weekend while offroading I went through small water puddle a little fast and the ABS and Traction Control light came on. I went under the truck and found the wires leading to the wheel sensors on both front wheels broken in half before they reached the wheel sensor. I have stripped the wires back and reconnected them with some speaker wire. I AM SURE I have them connected right, but the ABS and TC light stay on still. I used to hear a "thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk..." Constantly when in some loose stuff. I assume this was the TC working its magic as I do not hear this sound any more with wheel spin. What's wrong with my 1999 4.0L p38?

 

Sorry to say but we need a little more info. Did you pop any fuses ? Are you sure your wires are connected correctly

 

I checked all the fuses and found none blown, under the hood or under the passenger seat. I am positive that I have them hooked up right. The lead going to each wheel sensor contains 1 Red wire and 1 Black wire.

 

I have fixed my Traction Control problem. I bought some aftermarket sensors off eBay even though I was skeptical of aftermarket Rover stuff and installed them myself. Very easy procedure. Just take the wheels off and twist the sensors left and right while pulling and they slide out with some elbow grease. They actually have a quick connect/disconnect about 3 feet up the wire. Plug and Play. I cleaned the sensor housing up a little with a gloved pinky finger as it had some caked up mud down in it. The lights did not go off nor did the Traction Control begin working until I placed the Rover in High side and got the truck up to about 45mph, then they went off and the Traction Control started working. I was really disappointed when I first cranked the truck and the lights where still on, but they went off. YAY!

My first attempt at this repair, as you can read up there, was to just splice the broken sensor leads back togethger with some wire. I'm not sure if that would have fixed it or not, as I did not take the Rover off the jack stands when I completed splicing the leads back together. I just cranked the truck and saw that the lights where still on, and ordered new ones. I'm guessing it would have though. Had I drove the truck down the road I'm betting the Lights would have went off.

Still not sure what caused the sensor leads to break. Maybe just fatigue from turning the front wheels left and right coupled with dry rot. Is this a common problem?