2009 toyota corolla weird electrical /abs issue?

40

Asked by Carson Aug 13, 2020 at 06:39 PM about the 2009 Toyota Corolla Base

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I recently bought a 2009 toyota corolla. Upon buying the car it ran and drove
fine. No warning lights. Car was great. About 3 weeks after buying it its
developed this very strange problem that i dont really know where to start with.
Im a mechanic myself but im still learning newer cars and their strange hard to
diagnose problems and id much rather try somthing before taking it to a
mechanic. Eather way. The issue im having is that the car will flash an abs light
whenever i use the blinker. Strange right? The problem goes away if i turn the
car off and then back on, the abs light will go away. And wont come back on
until i use my blinker (right or left) but if i dont use my blinker for my entire drive
the abs light will stay off, the secound i flip that blinker on the car will throw an
abs light that will stay on until the car is turned off again. Somthing else to note
is that when the engine is under load (most noticeable at freeway speeds)
when i apply the blinker the engine sort of hiccups and revs up roughly 200-400
rpm. It does this intermittently and im thinking its just slipping the clutch, im not
sure if its normal for the car to do this but it sure does help me overtake cars
when lane changing because it allows the engine to rev quicker so it would
make sense to me for the car to do this as a normal feature but ive never had a
vehicle before thats done this. Eather way. Im thinking it could be anything from
the electrical, to the transmission. The brakes work great and always have. I still
drive the car daily with no issues but i cant immagine running it with this issue
is any good for it so id like to fix it asap. Any advice or help would be much
appreciated. The car is a 2009 1.8l toyota corolla. 180k miles. Engine runs
great, transmission shifts smooth. No other issues than the one listed above.

1 Answer

40

Just incase anyone cares (even though noone tried to offer me help) ive figured out the issue! It turns out the previous owner of the car had installed a tow package into the rear lamp assembly and they did a horrible job causing the brake and blinker wires to be crossed. This would cause the transmission to figure that i was slamming on the brakes every time i hit the blinker and made the ecu spaz out causing the abs light to trip. I removed all the wiring and stitched the rear end up and it works perfectly again!

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