ANy thoughts would be appreciated. 97 RL with ABS light which would come on after driving for a while. Was happening alot about 4 months ago. Went to local mechanic who did diagnostics and felt was a problem with either the accumulator or modulator. Very expenseive to repalce both with new parts. We replaced both with used parts and the problem went away. However, recently it has returned. When the car starts usually, though not always, I can hear the ABS pump come on briefly and then intermittently, once I hear that I can be certain that sometime in the next 1/2 hour the ABS light will come on. I spoke with a dealer service rep who suggested that the only definitive way to fix the problem is to replace both accumulator and modular with new parts and also the Master Brake CYllinder at the same time. I asked my mechanic about maybe replacing the master brake cylinder to see if that would help but he doubted it as there is no sign of leakage and the pedal seems normal in position. He decided a new tack, and purged the brake fluid in case aNY bubbles or what not but it didn't make any difference. To my knowledge the TCS light does not come on. I guess that accumulator/modulator could be bad again as we did get 4 months of reprieve and having not replaced with new parts adds to the confussion - however I wonder if some thing else is causing the problem - that would seem pretty bad luck to have 2 in a row go bad even for not new.

 

I had this issue happen on my 96 RL. I didn't go with used parts, just went directly for the OEM parts from the dealer (they are remanufactured... can't get brand new anymore even from the dealer).

I replaced the modulator and accumulator at a cost of around $800 for the parts. I did the install myself. The dealer wanted like $1200 for the total job installed. I was like screw that... I'll take the parts and put it in myself. It's not that hard to do...

I hate this old style of ABS. The newer ones (99 and up I think) don't have a separate reservoir and operate at much lower pressures. They don't bust as often as ours.

Hope this helps.