Crap lights on my dash after installing coilovers.
 

Well anyways.. I decided to put my car on some coilovers, Ksports to be exact, and for the love of god I don't need anyone being a complete fuck hole and tell me how I made a bad choice on coilovers. On to the main course, everything was running fine of course before I put the car on the lift, swapped out the stock for the coils. Put the wheels back on then when I started my beauty up the Tract light was on the CEL, ABS, Electric Steering light was also on wtf. So we hooked it up and scanned it with OBDII, it gave me a P0500 code for speed sensor A, and it also said something about the instrument panel... Any ideas what could have went wrong? We checked all the speed sensors and none of them where mangled or anything..,

I had a few lights go on after installation. Just get it aligned and they will go. It's because everything is out of spec.

It's because you made a bad choice on coilovers

Thanks for the insight, are you sure it can't be something more simple than that?

After I recently installed my hotchkiss springs and some lca's and my car was doing the same thing. The car was scarry to drive. The car knows its out of spec and is telling you something is terribly wrong. Out of curiosity did you put in the lower lcas? Once you get an alignment you should be good. Oh and this should be moved to the suspension thread if a mod sees this please. You will have more luck with answers there.

Thanks for the reply, I did replace the stock front end links with the adjustable ones. The lower LCAs are still stock >_>

It's the alignment, trust me.

just got my alignment... lights still on.

try to reset ECU by removing Negative Battery

I put coilovers on my car in my garage and didn't get any lights. Some wire is loose or broken. I don't get how your car can tell you that you are out of alignment and have an entire Christmas tree of light go off from a coilover install.

Done that :(

There's no way the car can tell the wheels are out of alignment, especially when the car has just been started and isn't even moving.

THe only possibility a poor alignment could cause anything like this is if the alignment is SO HORRIBLY FUCKED that the wheels are scrubing and causing them to rotate at different speeds, or cause chassis yaw that the car thinks shouldn't be happening (such as driving in a straight line.

The speed sensors may not look mangled, but one may not be installed correctly or the wires may be damaged internally. If they were attached and the hub was lowered, the wire may have been pulled, or while things were moving one may have been pinched.

sorry to hear man. In my situation, after putting on the coils, the wheels where way of spec. After the alignment everything cleared after driving it a few miles on the freeway.

Do this any time you modify anything on the car.

I love the advice given above... really sound advice.

Never knew a car would know what a good alignment is from a bad one. I bet my car also knows I ate shitty food tonight and will throw me a CEL for that.

Edit: I don't know what caused you guys to reach this type of conclusion, but there is no way a bad alignment can be causing a CEL or other code.

To the OP: something is causing the sensors to go bad. You might want to inspect the parts that could be causing a bad reading, such as speed sensor, ABS sensor, ABS lines, etc.

I don't know about what coilovers you're running, but my Ohlins just has a simple tab for the ABS sensor to be mounted. Sometimes you could install something, have the lines bind, and put the car down on the ground and pull apart a sensor or line.

-alex

Thanks Alex I just booked an appointment with a Subaru dealer tomorrow at 3. Hopefully they'll diagnose the problem without giving me shit for the coilovers..

If you have time, take off the front wheels and inspect the connections. You might not need to go to a dealer for this.

Rear wheels aren't as affected, since suspension install in the rear doesn't touch the ABS/wheel speed sensor. But always a good idea to check.

Frankly the last thing you want is a dealer to give you crap for modding the car, because then they'll always use that as an "out" for legitimate problems. More trouble than what it's worth.

-alex

P.S. I should clarify: you should try to solve this problem on your own, because if it is indeed an ABS sensor line issue, the dealer won't be helpful on this matter to you and may add info to your vehicle file that could cause problems with future warranty claims.

Already checked them they seemed fine... We even traced them all the way into the engine bay.

Check fuses too.

-alex

I had this same issue awhile back. It was a single sensor that went bad that caused exactly what you're describing. Once that sensor was swapped it was fine. I'll come back with more info in a bit.

Fuses were A ok as well.

Thanks keep me informed!

If the dealer needs to fix anything due to the mods being installed, they will likely NOT cover it under warranty.

And I also agree that the car shoudld not know that the alignment is messed up UNLESS it changed the spacing between the ABS sensor and the wheel.

Ok so it appears we ended up jacking up the line to the speed sensor. I'd check that sensor and the line.

It's possible you yanked on the ABS/Wheel speed sensor line hard enough to damage it. Other than that, I can't think of any other electronics that might be involved with installing coilovers.

I think I just have to replace the abs/speed sensors. Probably the cause of this, the shop installing my coilovers was putting to much pressure on the lines... I think it would be safe to come to the conclusion that he probably fucked over the wires internally.

I would do this before taking it to the dealership

I would take it to the shop and let them take care of it.

Why would they void my warranty?

This makes no difference; the ABS sensor reads off teeth that is cast into the hub assembly.

It doesn't matter if you run +100 offset or -100 offset wheels, there is no way the car will know what wheels you have on the car unless you have physically swapped out the hub assembly.

-alex

if I took my car to the dealer tomorrow, would they possibly void my warranty or will they simply turn me away?

I'm not sure if this would affect your warranty or not (seems unlikely but it could depend on the dealership) but they'd charge you a lot of money to do something you can do for cheaper.

The warranty is never void, however they can deny to cover repairs under warranty.

-alex

Well I guess we'll have to see.... its 175 for a speed sensor but we don't know which one it is. My speedo doesn't work and my fuel gage is acting up. I think it was throwing up a instrument cluster code as well.

Try and swap with a local to see if it fixes your problem. Should only take a few minutes.

Your issues sounds bigger than a simple "sensor"... if I were you, I'd put the stock suspension back on and get the car serviced.

-alex

Wish I knew someone willing

I had this problem after installing my ground control coilovers and rear LCAs. It went away after a (very precise) alignment.

If you're still having trouble after an alignment then maybe something is wrong with the speed sensor, but make sure the toe and camber are even before you assume something else is broken.

That is what I meant. They either damaged the sensor or somehow moved them so they cannot "see" the teeth in the hub. The sensor has to be very close to the teeth to sense them.

As others posted, it will not "void" the warranty.

If you say: "I had these guys put coilovers on and they must have broken my speed sensors, will you replace them for free? "
What do you imagine they will say?

Well guess I'll have to see tomorrow... If the dealer doesn't do it then the shop has agreed to pay for the expenses and do the work.

If you had this done at a shop they should be taking care of this without you needing to go to a dealership.