Electrical glitch--ABS related?

[entirelyturbo]

Well, I took my grandfather's wagon up to the Dragon this year, since neither of my cars felt like going . Although I didn't run it on the Dragon itself, I did still encounter plenty of treacherous mountain roads.

Aside from feeling like it had 5hp the whole time (it's the complete opposite of my Legacy), it did fine with no problems.

But this morning on the way to school, it did something very weird.

As I was sitting at a light, the idle started bouncing up and down, and the ABS light came on, and then I took off and it stopped and the light went off. Then as I crossed the intersection, the ABS light came back on and started fluctuating in brightness, and the engine began to buck and jump. I put it in Neutral and it stalled I put my hazards on as I was coasting in Neutral, and then restarted it. The ABS light was off, and the car behaved normally. It drove fine on the way home.

I'm tempted to say it has something to do with this anti-theft system and the ghetto hack-job that was done to install it. My grandfather and I both have had problems starting it, like we hafta wiggle the ignition switch to start it sometimes.

Any thoughts? Can I check the ABS comp for codes like I can the ECU? Would that tell me anything?

TIA!

[vrg3]

You can read codes from the ABS computer by lifting up a flap of carpet to reveal the little LED on it (search around, I think I or someone else posted the instructions before), but...

I don't think that's the problem. The ABS computer is usually the first device to notice when system voltage drops, and I'd bet that that's what happened here.

So I think you should have the battery and alternator tested. But, yeah, it could also be the crappy alarm install. Or it could just be a bad ignition switch -- if the previous owner had a lot of keys on his/her keychain, the weight could slowly kill the switch.

[Legacy777]

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com:8 ... bsdiag.jpg

[entirelyturbo]

Awesome. Thanks guys.

I do know that the battery might have seen better days, as this car is way slower to turn over than my Legacy.

I'm seriously thinking of picking up jlturner's Legacy for a parts car and swap over all the original wiring over to this car and get rid of that anti-theft system.