2007 Yaris-abs Light And Parking Brake Light On

[sk7276]

After I found myself sliding down an icy hill yesterday in my 2007 Yaris (50,000 miles on it) and applied my brakes...I noticed later that evening that my ABS light had come on and shortly after my parking brake llight came on. 24 hours later and they are still on. Owner's manual said cease driving immediately...but I had to go to work and my dealer can't see me until Thursday afternoon. Am I okay driving right now? My understanding is that everything should be fine...just won't have use of ABS...which honestly I am not a fan of them anyways. Most importantly though, I want to make sure not to be taken advantage of at my dealer, so I want to know what kind of things I should ask them or be on look out for when I take my cra in Thursday?

Any advice would be appreciated. I did see some previous threads but not quite what I was looking for. Thank You!

[alfiejts]

The risk is that if the system is faulty, you don't know how it will react in an emergency and might not brake "straight".

This sounds like an electrical issue rather than a physical component issue, but you can't be sure until its checked out.

I'm in no way suggesting that you should ignore the manual and if you do continue to use the car, its at your own risk - but if it was mine, here's what I'd do....

1) If you don't have to use the car, don't.

2) If you really need to use it and have no alternative then...

a) Check the brake fluid level. If its losing fluid don't drive it.

B) Try the car on a slight incline with the brakes off. You don't want to drive it if a brake is stuck on... If the car rolls on a slight incline, with the handbarke off, then that suggests all brakes are "free". (or you could simply try pushing it on a level driveway to see if you can easily move the car...)

c) Try driving the car at about 30mph on a wide roadway and try to brake firmly to a standstill. If the car pulls to one side or doesn't stop as it used to then again - don't use it.

If all the above checks out ok, then it suggest that the basic system is still functional...

If you then do decide to use the car, drive with more caution and try to plan ahead to avoid the need for hard braking....

(Again - any use of the vehicle is at your own risk......)

[Raeman]

I had a similar issue on my 96 Golf Gti once. The ABS light came on and stayed on for no reason, disconnected the Battery and that did'nt work, so i tested the brakes out on an empty car park a few times and they worked perfect, the ABS worked fine aswell.

I took it to a local VW specialist and they cleaned the ABS sensors as they had got dirty and never been touched for years.

This cost me £60 for the labour charge and the light never came on again in the further 2yrs i had the car.

Maybe your's is something similar?

[BALIKBAYAN]

On older Toyotas the light for the parking brake also meant low level of break fluid. You should check the level of brake fluid and then have a look around the wheels at the abs sensors. It could have happend something there when you were using the brakes.

You should be careful when you drive the car when the brakes is telling you that they are not ok.

[vrScarlet]

Well 'm glad I've logged on again. The wife's 2006 Yaris 1.3 had the abs light come on last week. It has stayed on ever since. Tried turning the ignition on and off but was still on. She obviously wasn't happy to drive it and I don't want to see her at risk so I took it to work this morning and took it to our local dealer in the afternoon. It went out briefly this morning but came back on again. I was hoping it was a dirty, iced over, faulty abs sensor but their computer showed all sensors to be working and giving the correct speed. So they tried to reset the system but it wouldn't. Concluded worst case senario would be the actuator assembly. Quote to replace £1200. But just as I was about to leave the technician turned the ignition off and back on and the fault codes cleared and all seems well. Tried braking hard on the way back home and does seem back to full health. It occurs to me that possibly a sensor was iced up or similar and being in the nice warm workshop has thawed it out. Seem reasonable?

Also is there a way I can get the price down elsewhere or are we stuck. Service manager said he would press Toyota for good will as we're nice customers and the car is just out of warranty.

Ian