Hello fellow ziners! hope everyone is doing well today. My tcs and abs lights have been on for a very long time due to needing to replace the driver's side speed sensor. I have put it off until now knowing that it posed no immediate threat to my TL. I finally dropped $40 and ordered the part and today I began uninstalling only to get to the sensor and find that it is completely stuck. I removed all bolts and screws and nothing should be holding it but for some reason it will not budge. anyone know why this is or what i can do? i also have pics if you need to see just let me know. thanks to all in advance. ill be back in 4 hours after work.

 

Ya gotta realize the sensor is mounted in an area subjected to many extremes of temperature and exposed to the elements. Once all the mounting hardware is removed, try some penetrating oil and apply some persuasive force to free it. (10 years of abuse will freeze it in place)

 

Just yank, break, pound. Do what ever it takes to get out. Since its no good it doesnt matter what damage you do to it. Once out clean the hole and reinstall the new one.

 

Beat it like it owes you money!

There is only one bolt holding the wheel sensor to the knuckle/hub. The sensor itself passes through an opening in the knuckle/hub, that's why only one bolt is used to hold it down at the opposite side of the sensor itself.

As you are not planning on re-using the sensor, i recommend soaking it with some wd40 or penetrating oil (without getting any on the rotor/brake pads; your dust shield should stop this but a piece of tissue/rag wouldn't hurt). Remove the bracket securing the wire to the knuckle/hub a few inches further back from the sensor. Then start to tap lightly on the side of the sensor where the bolt goes through so that the sensor rotates and break loose from the rust and all. There's another bracket securing the sensor wire further up in the upper area of the fender well that you will also need to remove before you can unplug and completely remove the sensor.

The sensor has an uneven oval shape with the bolt being on the smaller side of the oval. Imagine rotating the hour/minute/or seconds hand on an analog clock; the pulse detector (sensor) is at the center about which the hand rotates, and you will be pushing at the farthest end of the hand at its side to rotate it about the center point.

Though i doubt you would be able to, do not damage the magnetic pulser ring in the cv axle (above which the wheel sensor is floating). And do not hammer so hard that you can bend 3/8 inch thick metal, like a swing where you pull your hand back past your shoulder with a 2 pound hammer.

 

Torque spec for the bracket bolts, and sensor bolt for front and rear are 9.8 N-m , 1.0 kgf-m , 7.2 lbf-ft.

 

thanks guys, ill try some bolt buster tomorrow and let you know how it goes. to clarify to all, all bolts and screws and wiring have been removed. whoever owned the car before me must have been a total dumb ass and just wrapped the broken wires around each other and covered with electrical tape -____- so about a half inch of wiring and the sensor is the only parts remaining.

note to all i ended up having to take out my filter box and disconnect the intake to make more room to get at the parts that go through the fender well. only took about and extra 10-15 minutes so it was well worth it.

 

Yea lol it looked like something I didnt want to damage. I figured thats how the speed sensor worked and thought it was pretty interesting.

 

 

how weird i just replaced my front left yesterday lol

anyways everything went smooth until i had to take the sensor out, figures...

what i did was just spray the whole thing, magnetic side and outside with wd40 real good. i let it soak for like 10 minutes. then i took a hammer and banged it from a few sides to loosen it. it started coming out then the wire part snapped and exposed all the copper magnetic wiring inside. i pulled that out and then took pliers and pulled out the metal shaft thing inside. then i just took a small chisel and hammered the rest of the plastic out. since the sensor is bad who cares if it breaks. cleaned the hole and popped the new one in and i was done within 15 minutes.

 

This. This is something similar to what i did to mine once.

 

when you replace this, what is the best way to clean everything out beyond just spraying some WD-40 or PB Blaster in the hole? I can't see the pulser. Do you have to remove more than just the speed sensor to clean it out?

 

Hey JJH, do ya already have the old sensor removed ? If not, use some force !
If it's already out, just clean everything up the best ya can and install the new one.