ABS brake light on

This weekend my ABS brake light came on. And would not go off. So I searched this subject on the forum and came across a lot of discussion as to where to troubleshoot. Needle in haystack stuff. Then I found an old post with a comment relating to LED brake lights. I had just installed a 3rd LED brake bulb on the rear door. I already had 2 LED bulbs in the lower rear brake lights  that had worked fine up to now. I replaced the newly placed LED brake bulb in the rear door, no change, ABS light stayed on. I replace both lower LED brake bulbs (now I had all original brake bulbs), and off went the ABS light. I re-installed an LED bulb in the rear door, and the system still works.  So I left it as it is. Pity because the bulbs I installed flashed 3 times before staying on, as if you were pumping the brakes to warn someone you were stopping. Quite liked that feature, and really liked the bright brake lights. 

This forum is a fountain of information. I would never ever have linked the LED brake bulbs with the ABS system. Learn something new each day.

 

Supposedly quite a few Japanese cars link brake bulb failure to the ABS warning lamp.

Some LED bulbs come with a 'resistor load' built in so the draw enough current to keep the bulb monitor circuit happy.

It sort of defeats one of the reasons to fit LED bulbs, reduce current but still give a good bright light. I have never heard of the ABS light coming on on bulb failure, but Roger is probably correct, it's a warning to check the bulbs.

Robin

It had me fooled for an evening when I tried LEDs in the stop/tail lights of a 2012 Jimny.  Curiously, the ABS light didn't stay on with every engine start - it did it about every other time.  Anyway, putting incandescents back in solved it for good.

I found a wiring diagram which showed the brake lights were wired to the ABS controller.  It *might* be because of Brake Assist, if a 2012 car has such a thing, as this usually flashes the brake lights after a computer-augmented stop.

Yes I had a few warning flashes as well, which I watched, but as they went away, I was happy. I tried to fit LEDs to my indicators, but had this rapid flashing problem. I bought a few different load units, but there is no room to fit them on the tail light assembly. I read that some LED bulbs contain in built load units to fool the system but I have not found any. Pity because I would like LEDs at the rear as the bulbs on mine are like candles.