[tsmalls]

Hi everyone

I just bought my second Outback last wednesday. We've had it a week and I got the check engine cruise control combo yesterday. Thanks to the forums I was able to pull the codes myself. I got a C0106 and C0108 which basically call out a problem with the LH front and rear ABS sensors. My questions is when I got the errors my car was parked for about 25 minutes running with my sleeping 14 month old inside while I talked to my dad. It was pointed into the sun with a bit shining on the LH side of the car. Is it possible that the insanly bright sunlight caused the ABS sensors to error out? The sun angle was p[retty low at the time and as soon as the sun went down the error went away. The car sat off for about 3 hours until the sun went down and we left.

Thanks in advance for anything you can offer,
Terry

 

[tdelker]

What year? The ABS are magnetic sensors, so sunlight shouldn't affect them, but heating *might*

 

[tsmalls]

sorry...its a 2006 2.5 limited with 74,000.

 

[plain OM]

The ABS sensors are in behind the wheel bearing hub, and shielded from the sun by the hub and the much larger brake rotor. If heat from the sun could affect the sensors that way, I would think there would be similar reactions when the rotors and pads get hot when driving in stop and go traffic on a hot day.

Nevertheless, it's a new car to you, and who knows what repairs and/or mods were done in the past.

The two ABS-related codes are for "abnormal" signals from the sensors. This is usually detected when the car is moving, because there isn't normally a signal from the sensors when the car is stationary.

Where was the car parked? Any radio transmitters in the area (e.g. radio station, cell phone towers? Any service trucks (power company, telephone company, etc)? Radio signals can be picked up by the sensor wiring and sent to the ABS control module, which would not be able to interpret them, leading to the "abnormal" code. (Radio signals normally don't cause a problem because the car is usually moving and not enough of the signal is induced on the sensor wiring, but a stationary car in a strong radio field for some time could be something else.)

The sun angle etc might be a coincidence. But the sun does affect radio wave propagation, and could have been a factor, but I tend to think this is far less likely.

Interesting and very odd symptom. Be interested to learn if it happens again.

 

[tsmalls]

Its a bit strange for sure that i would get two codes for the same thing. There was a signature that was missed for the financing so I have some leverage to have it checked when I head back in to give my signature. I'll report back on what they say. I did turn left into my parents driveway and parked the car. I didn't notice the lights come on before I got out of the car. I tend to be aware of those things. The car was pointed almost exactly west and it was later afternoon. I have most of the maint. records. The brakes have less than 10,000 miles on them and the rotors were resurfaced when the pads were installed. The people that owned the car before me were pretty hardcore with the maint. that was done on the car. Everything was done according to the schedule. At 73,000 the timing belt has been changed along with the headgasket and water pump while they were in there.