JK ABS, traction light flashing

[OG47]

Hi all,

I am hoping to get some advice on an issue we've been having with our jeep.

Model:
2013 JK 2 door.

The main symptoms seem to occur at random: Ill be driving down any type of road and without any warning the traction control, ABS and hand brake light will flash on and off. There is also a singular beep/chime at the start of it.

However it is not always the same, sometimes these additional things may happen during the flashing and beep:

- The traction control light will stay on until the car is turned off.

- The speedo will also fluctuate while this is happening

- Cruise control will turn off

- The radio will reset itself, if i had a bluetooh connection that was also lost and needed to be re connected.


What we have tried:
I have done some research my self and it seemed like this could be a wheel speed sensor issue. We took it too motorama and they checked it codes and found that a rear speed sensor was faulty. They were not initially sure if it was left or right rear so they swapped the sensors and told us to call them when it happens again and bring the car in. We did this and the faulty sensor was swapped out. They also noted that they were getting high voltage error codes, they checked the electronics with a multimeter and couldnt find any unusually high voltages. We havnt been back to them yet.

After the new sensor was in we didnt have any issues for about 6 weeks. We were 4wding recently and noticed that while in 4low the car did the same beep/chime again. After going back into 2wd the flashing occured a few days later, very frustrating. We did go through some water and mud.

Ive read about a possible alternator issues.

Any advice or things to possible check?

Thanks

[humdingerslammer]

might need a good under car wash....

[st_za]

It's normal to hear the warning chime when shifting into 4 Low because it switches off ESP and most the safety systems, when switching off the tractional control manually or any time the car's monitoring detects an issue. A lot of the common issues like overheating brakes display a message in the in-gauge screen so in my limited experience, if you hear the chime and you see the 3 lights come on in the dash while driving but no message then it's usually wheel speed sensor or its wiring, faulty clock spring or most commonly a misaligned steering wheel. These issues which will also deactivate ESP and traction control but you mentioned the speedo fluctuating, which I hadn't personally encountered before when I had wheel speed sensor issues probably because the speedo signal comes from the transfer case, and you mentioned the radio resetting.

My backyard mechanic spidey-senses tell me it's electrical connection gremlins so my first suggestion would be to check the ground points under the bonnet first and tightening their nuts if they are even a little loose. If memory serves, there are 3: One next to the battery/TIPM on the inside of the fender, one further forward on the fender next to the ECU and one on the driver's side fender next to the reservoir closest to the firewall (I think it's the brake fluid reservoir).

On a friend's Jeep, a dealership diagnosed similar issues as a faulty ECU, which was replaced but didn't fix them. I reckon it was simply a loose TIPM connection because the issues never appeared again after we removed and reinstalled the TIPM to clean it and its plugs. It seemed a daunting task but it wasn't a difficult job that needed specialised tools, especially because we watched every Youtube video we could find on the TIPM and we used my dual battery kit instructions to help us out.

You might still have a separate wheel speed sensor issue though so I would suggest looking over the wiring, especially at the plugs looking for exposed wire or possible broken connections and near the rear bumpstops looking for crushed wire sleeving (it caused an intermittent connection issue for me).

May I offer some more unwarranted advice? Stay out of the mud. I have had to replace 4 sensors over the years, every time after driving through Glasshouse mud so now I stick to rock crawling.

[RLT]

Yeah mud takes some cleaning off, it might look & be fun but if you value your vehicle & parts ....
Had an issue a few years back with abs. traction lights etc
Thought it was a speed sensor but ended up being the nearside wheel bearing.

[Perku-t]

Clean the ABS sensor and the inside of the hub in the sensor hole, I had to do it twice before end of troubles like you because of magnetiques particles stiking to them and was faultying the readings

[Banshee]

Mud: 10 minutes of fun. 10 years of crap falling in your eyes...

BTDT. Pulled & cleaned all the sensors. Replaced a few over the years in my '08.