Need help with traction control light

[jewilkinson01]

Hello everyone, hoping someone can point me in the right direction here, my wife's 2012 KK has had an issue with the traction control light for quite some time. Everything I find online seems to be for traction control AND ABS lights, but the ABS light is not coming on. The traction control light comes on pretty much every time she drives it, not right away, it happens after she has been driving for a little while and always comes on for the first time during braking, not every time she brakes, it might be the 5th time or the 10th time, once it comes on it stays on until she turns the car off. The brake lights also stay on once the light is on. I tired to go to advance auto parts to see if they could find any codes but their readers only do CELs. I am working two jobs and trying to remodel my basement that flooded last month, so time and money are both very limited.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

(I posted this on another forum so I appologize for the duplication for anyone, just wanted more visibility)

 

[kiwi_outdoors]

Just ignore it if the car is driving ok. IF in doubt, go out to an empty area and try a panic stop. If it stops in a straight line- you are ok

 

[LONGJEEPOWNER]

I had some what of the same problem plus my cruise control would not work! I found a bad wheel speed sensor bad.

 

[jewilkinson01]

Thanks Kiwi, I would be perfectly fine with that, however my wife (who is also a Kiwi coincidentally) has anxiety issues and freaks out everytime she sees it.

Just ignore it if the car is driving ok. IF in doubt, go out to an empty area and try a panic stop. If it stops in a straight line- you are ok

 

[jewilkinson01]

I had some what of the same problem plus my cruise control would not work! I found a bad wheel speed sensor bad.

I will have her try the cruise control, I did replace the rear wheel sensors last weekend because they were cheap and it's an easier job to replace them than test them, but that didn't help, I will see if I can find instructions to test the front.

 

[lfhoward]

I agree with the wheel speed sensor or the wiring going to it. It sounds like the connection goes out when the brakes/wheel warms up. The front sensors are part of the hub bearing units.

 

[jewilkinson01]

Well, I wasn’t able to find a procedure to test the sensors using any tools I already owned so I replaced the front hubs yesterday with new timken units with included sensors . Today the traction control light is on again. It could be wiring somewhere but I am not sure if I can isolate it. At this point I will probably have to bite the bullet and see if I can get an appointment at the dealership and pay the $150 for them to connect to the computer and get more information. I haven’t found anywhere closer or cheaper that can pull error codes that aren’t related a check engine light.

 

[sota]

you need someone with a scan tool capable of looking at the individual wheel speed sensors, to see if any of them are out of wack.

I can tell you what I found recently on an 06 i have here... the wiring for the right wheel speed sensor is extremely long and exposed where it passes near the axle and the sway bar. it's covered in probably now crumbling split loom tubing, and there's a zip tie that holds the wiring to the sway bar. mine had been crushed by said zip tie, and had worn through and broken one of the leads. the wires in question were green and the pair twisted together.

 

[jewilkinson01]

I wanted to add an update in case anyone is looking into the same issue. I ended up buying a $30 bluetooth OBDII scanner from Amazon and using OBD JScan, which was $20 for a single vehicle license, but it only works with KKs and not KJs. JScan was not as granular as I was hopping or as much as their tech support told me before I bought the license, as I could not read each wheel sensor individually (unless I just wasn't doing it right, I wish I could figure it out because I would like to know which TPS sensor is wrong) however it showed I have a code for the brake light switch that the auto parts store scanner didn't pick up. A Mopar switch from Amazon was another $30 but so far its been over a week and no traction light.

Thank you everyone for your help.

 

[JeepLibertyKK]

I wanted to add an update in case anyone is looking into the same issue. I ended up buying a $30 bluetooth OBDII scanner from Amazon and using OBD JScan, which was $20 for a single vehicle license, but it only works with KKs and not KJs. JScan was not as granular as I was hopping or as much as their tech support told me before I bought the license, as I could not read each wheel sensor individually (unless I just wasn't doing it right, I wish I could figure it out because I would like to know which TPS sensor is wrong) however it showed I have a code for the brake light switch that the auto parts store scanner didn't pick up. A Mopar switch from Amazon was another $30 but so far its been over a week and no traction light.

Thank you everyone for your help.

You need to go to a parts store that will read all codes for you. A basic reader doesn’t do it. I had a similar problem and the errors showed ABS Rear Wheel Sensor, Left. The rears are straightforward to replace if you’re only doing the sensors. Replaced both rears and issue resolved.

 

[jewilkinson01]

You need to go to a parts store that will read all codes for you. A basic reader doesn’t do it. I had a similar problem and the errors showed ABS Rear Wheel Sensor, Left. The rears are straightforward to replace if you’re only doing the sensors. Replaced both rears and issue resolved.

Thank you for relating your experience, it is well documented that the wheel speed sensors are the most common cause of traction control light issues, although they seem to often be accompanied by the ABS light which was not my experience. As I mentioned above, I did go to an auto parts store for a scan. As soon as they saw it was a light other than the check engine light they wouldn’t even plug the scanner in and told me they couldn’t help. As I also mentioned above, I replaced all 4 wheel sensors and that didn’t resolve the issue. Maybe the JScan tool would have displayed the wheel sensor error. I don’t know since there was no wheel sensor error for it to find and display. It did, however, show the brake switch error, which was the cause of the problem in my case. And a much cheaper and easier fix than the wheel sensors.
The point of me posting my experience is so that people with the same issue might see that it isn’t always a wheel sensor issue and spend money and time replacing them because that is what I did after all my research pointed to those sensors as the most likely cause. Also, I really didn’t want to pay the dealership $150 just for a scan, so I wanted people with KKs to be aware that there is a cheaper option to scan yourself that provides more information than the local parts store can, at least where I live.