Success. I was able to use the Abbott ERA to suppress the C0245 error, and got rid of those ABS and Brake light illuminators. I just took 3.73/4.11 to get my correction factor of 9.075. I then had to choose to set the Abbott ERA to either 9.05 or 9.1, and I chose 9.1 I configured the Abbott ERA to DC square wave mode by setting the 4 pin configuration switch from the shipped default of 1000 to 0110 after a quick call to their support line.
Abbott also recommends putting the ERA as close to the sensor as possible, which in my case the “sensor” was the ECM under the hood. Using my service manual I referenced their “X1” to connector “J1” on the ECU. I opened up the harness and immediately saw a Yellow/Black wire. Instead of splicing into it I just shaved off a bit of insulation, hooked up my o-scope, and went for a drive. I never saw anything on the line, so came back to garage and dug into the harness a bit more and found another yellow/black line that was a much smaller gauge (18 – 20-ish), shaved off some insulation and went for a drive. Even backing out of the driveway my scope displayed a square wave and I knew that was the line. I took it out on a drive and wrote down the displayed frequency from 20 – 75 mph in 5 mph increments. 1.1 miles in at 65 MPH I received my ~33 chimes and ABS/Brake Fault Lights. I then cut the line (nerve-racking!!) and rough twisted/taped the ERA in place to go for a test drive, writing down the frequency again. I had made a “calculated” frequency column which was my originally recorded values x 0.91 so I knew that was in the ballpark. The signal was decently clean, and with the same driving profile no alarms or illuminators and the displayed frequency tracked very closed to my projected calculated values!
Now for the full installation.
I ran an 18 AWG shielded pair (not twisted shielded pair) from home depot that was sold as alarm wiring for $0.33/ft. I placed it in some of the plain corrugated conduit (1/4”) and ran it from the ECM, outboard of the brake-booster, down the back wheel-well, and penetrated the firewall about 1.5” inboard of where the parking brake cable transitions into the cab. I made a quick bracket out of some scrap and mounted the ERA right underneath/outboard of the steering column. The ERA unit is not sealed so it is clearly not meant to be placed in the elements. Of my 12’ of shielded cable that I purchased from the Depot I had a little under 5’ that I cut off, so a 7’ run in total. Since it is square wave is why I opted to go with a shielded cable to ensure noise wouldn’t be an issue. The alarm wire is stranded, foil jacketed, with a non-insulated drain wire that I pulled over to a ground location that I have from a previous fuse panel add-on install. I asked Abbott about fuse rating, and they recommended a 5A.
Another reason why I chose to cut the ECM side was looking at the EBCM harness IRL there were at least 3 Yellow/Black wires that I identified running into it and I didn’t even want to try to figure out which was which, so the ECM was a much more straight forward approach. My cut into the ECM was less than 1 foot away from the J1 connector.
I had 2 phone calls to Abbott along with a few emails, and I must say that their personal approach, tech support, and customer service is absolutely outstanding. I am going to follow up with them this week regarding my 75 MPH square wave as the square wave has a small amount of distortion, but with the obvious lack of an ABS/Brake light, the EBCM seems to manage it just fine.
This fix is specific to vehicles with the JF3, JF7, JH6, or JH7 RPO code that have a a sensor on each front wheel and the 3rd piece of data coming from the VSS.
JL4 vehicles have a sensor on all wheels that directly feed the EBCM so I can't speak to any issues there.
Success. I was able to use the Abbott ERA to suppress the C0245 error, and got rid of those ABS and Brake light illuminators. I just took 3.73/4.11 to get my correction factor of 9.075. I then had to choose to set the Abbott ERA to either 9.05 or 9.1, and I chose 9.1 I configured the Abbott ERA to DC square wave mode by setting the 4 pin configuration switch from the shipped default of 1000 to 0110 after a quick call to their support line. Abbott also recommends putting the ERA as close to the sensor as possible, which in my case the “sensor” was the ECM under the hood. Using my service manual I referenced their “X1” to connector “J1” on the ECU. I opened up the harness and immediately saw a Yellow/Black wire. Instead of splicing into it I just shaved off a bit of insulation, hooked up my o-scope, and went for a drive. I never saw anything on the line, so came back to garage and dug into the harness a bit more and found another yellow/black line that was a much smaller gauge (18 – 20-ish), shaved off some insulation and went for a drive. Even backing out of the driveway my scope displayed a square wave and I knew that was the line. I took it out on a drive and wrote down the displayed frequency from 20 – 75 mph in 5 mph increments. 1.1 miles in at 65 MPH I received my ~33 chimes and ABS/Brake Fault Lights. I then cut the line (nerve-racking!!) and rough twisted/taped the ERA in place to go for a test drive, writing down the frequency again. I had made a “calculated” frequency column which was my originally recorded values x 0.91 so I knew that was in the ballpark. The signal was decently clean, and with the same driving profile no alarms or illuminators and the displayed frequency tracked very closed to my projected calculated values! Now for the full installation. I ran an 18 AWG shielded pair (not twisted shielded pair) from home depot that was sold as alarm wiring for $0.33/ft. I placed it in some of the plain corrugated conduit (1/4”) and ran it from the ECM, outboard of the brake-booster, down the back wheel-well, and penetrated the firewall about 1.5” inboard of where the parking brake cable transitions into the cab. I made a quick bracket out of some scrap and mounted the ERA right underneath/outboard of the steering column. The ERA unit is not sealed so it is clearly not meant to be placed in the elements. Of my 12’ of shielded cable that I purchased from the Depot I had a little under 5’ that I cut off, so a 7’ run in total. Since it is square wave is why I opted to go with a shielded cable to ensure noise wouldn’t be an issue. The alarm wire is stranded, foil jacketed, with a non-insulated drain wire that I pulled over to a ground location that I have from a previous fuse panel add-on install. I asked Abbott about fuse rating, and they recommended a 5A. Another reason why I chose to cut the ECM side was looking at the EBCM harness IRL there were at least 3 Yellow/Black wires that I identified running into it and I didn’t even want to try to figure out which was which, so the ECM was a much more straight forward approach. My cut into the ECM was less than 1 foot away from the J1 connector. I had 2 phone calls to Abbott along with a few emails, and I must say that their personal approach, tech support, and customer service is absolutely outstanding. I am going to follow up with them this week regarding my 75 MPH square wave as the square wave has a small amount of distortion, but with the obvious lack of an ABS/Brake light, the EBCM seems to manage it just fine. This fix is specific to vehicles with the JF3, JF7, JH6, or JH7 RPO code that have a a sensor on each front wheel and the 3rd piece of data coming from the VSS. JL4 vehicles have a sensor on all wheels that directly feed the EBCM so I can't speak to any issues there.
