My Stabitrak and ABS warning light came on
Asked by Starla May 02, 2016 at 09:18 AM about the 2011 Buick LaCrosse CXL FWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
This is the 2nd time. The first time I did what the manual said and turned the engine off and back on . The lights did not come back on. This morning 3 weeks later the warning lights came on. I didn't feel anything different or experience any problems?
4 Answers
This appears to be more of a GM issue rather than just to Buick. Yes, I know GM makes Buicks but they also make other cars as well. Anyways, I have a 2012 Buick Lacrosse and I know that there was a recall issued for all years 2010-2015.
I do not see a single recall for 2010 Buick Lacrosse when I submitted the VIN.
These cars are junk! Turns out my 2010 Lacrosse has a Vauxhall Abs Unit! How is that even possible? My stability track light and Abs light have been coming on since the first year of purchase! I wish I could seek legal action.
SinisterKid answered 4 years ago
I realize this is an old question but I'm answering for anyone else experiencing same issues - If you're experiencing this issue and it clears after a restart and only comes back intermittently, it's likely you have metal or corrosion on the tone ring and/or speed sensor at one of your wheel hubs - this system is what the computer uses to identify which wheels are turning and which ones are not turning. When the system detects an erratic signal from a sensor, it will throw on the message for ABS and Stabilitrak. These tone rings and sensors are exposed to the elements so it's easy for road debris to get into the area and cause issues with the tone ring, the sensor, or both. If you're not mechanically inclined and are experiencing an intermittent problem with the ABS/Stabilitrak lights/messages, try taking the car to a car wash featuring the underbody flush to see if that might flush away the debris causing the erratic signals. If that doesn't do it - it's likely going to need someone to check the sensors and tone rings to verify everything is proper. You can have the codes read to identify which wheel hubs are causing the lights to trip so you at least know where to look - Autozone and O'Reillys I believe will both pull codes for free but not sure how good their code readers are that they use. If the problem shows up and won't go away, my suspicion right off is that it's going to be a damaged tone ring - these things are extremely delicate. I live on a gravel road and seem to only get 2 or 3 years out of a tone ring before I'm stuck replacing the wheel hub again. If you have to pay a dealership to do the hub replacements, just accept that you're going to be spending a few hundred dollars every time that ABS light comes on. Unfortunately this is the price we pay for wanting all these computer-controlled elements on our vehicles. Note: Some people would probably tell me I'm crazy for saying it but there's really not much issue with driving this model of Buick with the ABS in bypass mode, just don't take it to someone and have them clear the codes if you don't fix anything. People seem to forget that ABS wasn't on cars for many, many years and people were able to drive just fine. Fortunately GM has gotten wise to their errors on their early ABS systems that caused so many people to have scary accidents when the tone rings corroded (early versions wouldn't put the ABS in bypass mode until the problem could be fixed so ABS activated when it shouldn't have and caused people to have no brakes).