CEL P0500 Vehicle Speed Sensor Malfunction
 

During installation of new wheel studs, I was working on one side of the car and my dad on the other. For some reason he took the stainless ring off the axle and when he put it back on, it was backwards.

After putting everything on and doing a test drive the CEL, ABS, and Slip indicator came on.

The ABS sensor on the rear-left was damaged by the ring that was on backwards, rubbing against each other. The bottom half of the sensor was worn down and bending outwards.

I got a used sensor off of Ebay from a highly rated seller, "verified" to be in working condition. I installed it yesterday, with the ring in the correct position.

The error lights are still on. I've cleared the error, reset the connection in the trunk, disconnected battery, etc. multiple times. I inspected the sensor and cables and everything looks great.

I did contact the Ebay seller but I have not heard back yet. It is the weekend.

Before I take it to the dealer, what are some other things I can check?

is the sensor ring damaged as well

Sensor ring? Not sure what part that is. I replaced the entire sensor assembly from the wheel hub section to inside the trunk.

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The ring that your dad installed backwards is the sensor ring (aka reluctor). The speed sensor needs to accurately sense the rotation of that part. Is it damaged?

The part that was installed backwards was the "outer joint assembly baffle" labeled "8" in the diagram below. That piece was a little bent up but I straightened the edges back up and rotated it to face the correct direction.

I am not sure which part is the sensor ring. I don't believe we got that far into the axle while removing the wheel hub to replace the wheel studs.

Can someone post of picture of the sensor ring? I don't remember seeing it and I cannot find any BRZ/FR-S pictures online showing it.

I searched to no avail (I mean really searched for a good hour) before replying. Even the service manual does not mention anything about a rotor/scale/reluctor. What does the business end of the speed sensor get close to? Can you take a photo?

This is a photo I took the other day. These are the two holes for the sensor. The sensor drops down the larger hole and a screw holds it down in the other one.

The silver you see at the bottom of the hole is the baffle that was installed backwards.

So the sensor hangs directly over and next to the baffle. Perhaps the sensor reads the splines on the axle.

yep their might not be a separate ring but the sensor must use something as a pickup you say it might be axle splines make sure their clean and not full of dirt\grease is their any adjustment on sensor ?

If you have techstream it can read outputs from individual wheel sensors

not sure you will see any voltage change if you measure with voltmeter as you slowly rotate wheel, maybe compare to working sennsor.

The service manual makes a big deal of making sure the sensor is clean. I think that baffle serves double duty. If you look at photos of the front hub, it also has a similar looking rotating part attached to the inside.

http://www.frsport.com/Subaru-28373C..._p_398295.html

Here is some additional information. When I start the car, the CEL, ABS, and Slip indicator are all on. When I clear the CEL, it goes out, but the other two lights stay up, and about 5 seconds later the CEL is back on. This is without the car moving.

There is no adjustment on the sensor. It looks as clean as the other one. It is not caked in mud or anything. The splines on the axle looked fairly clean if I remember correctly.

The fact that all the lights turn on when the car is not moving, even after clearing the CEL, is confusing me. Maybe the new-used sensor is bad. Or when the old sensor was damaged, could it have hurt the VSC computer or blown any fuses? I checked the green ABS fuse and it looked ok. I could not remove the second, smaller ABS fuse. I did not have anything to grab it with earlier.

After seeing your pics in the wheel stud thread, I'm sticking with my guess about that ring. I hope an expert chimes in.

The exact same thing happened to my friend's BRZ. When replacing the wheel studs somehow the ring damaged the sensor and the ring got bent pretty bad. In his case we just bent the ring back to its original shape as much as we could though the hole of the ABS sensor using a screwdriver and installed a new(used) sensor from ebay.

You can either straighten out the ring or replace it. The ring part number is 28437FG000.

http://www.2carpros.com/images/archived/abs_sensor.gif

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/CT...one_Ring_1.PNG
They may be toothed rings or maybe the new magnetic type which will be smooth, you may have the encoder ring on backwards or the sensor is stuffed.

Above photos not from BRZ
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/data:...EEEEAQQQQH/9k=

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/data:...EEEEAQQQQH/9k=

I went to a local shop and had them check the sensor. They say the sensor itself is fine. However, they pulled a bunch of codes and said to head to the dealership.


Code - U0073 Description - Control Module Communication Bus "A" Off

CODE - C1201 ENGINE CONTROL SYSTEM MALFUNCTION

CODE - C1333 OPERATOR IN LEFT REAR SPEED SENSOR

CODE - C1467 LEFT REAR SPEED SENSOR

I'll be heading to the dealership first thing tomorrow.

Here's an update.
I took the car to the dealership Monday morning. They cleared the codes and drove it around for a few miles and said it was good as new since the codes did not come back on. They did not understand why the codes kept coming back immediately for me and Firestone. That costs $110.

I pickup the car that afternoon and about 15 minutes later I notice the ABS kicking in every time I slow down. Then the lights all come back on. I headed back to the dealership.

On Tuesday they take the hub off and say that they think something is wrong with the tone ring inside the wheel hub / wheel bearing. They want $185 for the new hub assembly then almost $500 more for labor for a total of $650.

I could not believe they wanted that much for labor. They already had the hub off. All the had to do was put the new one on. Instead I told them to put the old one back on. He still had to do the exact same amount of work either way!

I picked up the car and stopped by the parts department to buy the wheel hub assembly for $185. I planned on waiting until Friday when I had some time to install it.

However, on Wednesday morning all the error lights turned off. The car drove normal and was not in limp mode anymore.

It is Friday now and I just returned the wheel hub I bought. The lights are still off and the car seems just fine.

I am guessing that somehow the technician must have installed things slightly different when putting everything back on. And now the sensor is sensing the tone ring correctly.

CEL P0500 Vehicle Speed Sensor Malfunction
 

A picture from the inside of the knuckle with hub installed, this seems to look right unless the sensor ring is push too far in or out on the axle shaft causing a false reading?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...812d24e3c2.jpg

Hi,

I had exactly the same issue. The 3 lights went on and randomly disappeared after start up. This happened for like 3 days and I had a shop check for me. However, at that time there is no speed sensor available in US. I ended up with getting my car back, but it just went normal after getting home. I drove it for like a week without any issue, but the issue went back later tonight.

Do you still have the issue? Or the issue was resolved by itself without changing any part?

Best,
Bill

I have yet to resolve the issue with my car, however as in your case and the majority of members in this thread it has not been intermittent.

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So the issue never came back? In my case it comes back after a few miles drive and disappear occasionally.

It's been a couple years and it never happened again for me.

Ended up being a misaligned tone ring for me [emoji54][emoji21][emoji58]

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P0500
 

I am experiencing a similar problem ... my car is in limp mode after i installed some subwoofers and ichecked the code which was a p0500 and i did a diagnostic test and it said right rear wheel speed sensor short so i replaced the sensor and nothing happened everything is still the same .. some please help me !

try a new sensor. the bearing is what the sensor picks up.

Great thread; Got the same P0500 code after installing extended studs. the Mechanic chipped the tip of the original sensor; i wonder if he warped the tone ring as well. I replaced two new but 'used' sensors from cars without the code issue but no luck, code came back

I suspect mine is a tone ring misalignment as well; code only kicks in when cruising 130km/hr+, 125 when its moist outside.

Going to bet on a dis-assemble and re-assemble before I decide to replace the hub. Did anyone end up buying the ring '28437FG000'? how much was it?

The rings are exceptionally cheap, $10-15 iirc. I decided to replaced them myself however couldn't find any information online as to how set them, so I guessed. Dealer ended up replaced the whole bearing with ring pre installed and that did the trick. Bearing assembly i believe was north of $130 for the part alone.

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Subwoofer mounted in the truck I would have to assume? That's where the connection to the wheel speed sensor is located for either side, id check the connection of the plugs or pinched wires.

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Wow. It has been a long time for this thread. The reluctor is that same item-8 of the exploded view in post-5. It sits outboard of the wheel speed sensor. Therefore, the wheel speed sensor must be removed before separating the axle from the hub.


edit: see below. I've been wrong about this. :(

No worries. This is good stuff. I will look into this more carefully. There have been many rear wheel speed sensors broken by removing the axle while the sensor is in place. I've pieced this all together without firsthand experience. Haven't yet had to disassemble my own.


Do you know what's snapping the sensors?

Man, I have to write some corrections. Thanks very much for setting me straight.


https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1410279595

I think knowing the right part is way more important than knowing how many poles it has. :bonk:

No, that was a picture of a disassembly failure due to rust. It shows the ferrous particles built up on the reluctor. Came from this thread. I took a fresh look at these pictures to make sense of it.


https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1448303889https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1448303889


https://www.ft86club.com/forums/atta...1&d=1356222431

vss turns off randomly/P0500
 

i would like to point out that yes i have read many forums before hand, but for some reason my scenario seems unique. the code it keeps popping up is P0500: speed sensor A. i cant seem to find any pointers to actually solve the issue so someone please help steer me to the right direction. since the code calls it speed sensor A, it made sense to start w the driver side front wheel/ abs position A. i went ahead and replaced the hub assembly & cleaned the abs sensor sense it seemed fine & not really dirty. but didn’t fix it. let me point out that this issues happens “sometimes,” i’ll be driving and i lose power steering, traction control, abs, & of course the speedometer stops working. i then pull over & turn the car off & then back on so the VSS can function again. but sometimes it will happen again rt away as i go down the road, sometimes it takes a while, or sometimes it doesn't happen at all. i also have a quick release steering wheel which kicks on the abs & traction control light on a few minutes into the car ride. but that has been like that since always, even tho it has resistors. the VSS issue started way after installing my quick release btw. please someone offer some advice. isa Subaru Brz 2014 6 spd.

I've spent my afternoon diagnosing a P0500 error code after installing extended wheel nuts and figured I'd share my experiences here. Hoping it helps the next person who is experiencing this issue.

Since I like to understand the system to better diagnose the issue, I found this article and this video helpful. To use the video's terms, our cars appear to have an "Active ABS wheel speed sensor" with an "multi-pole magnetic encoder" (axial type). The magnetic encoder is part of the wheel bearing assembly. So, the only two parts to the system are the vehicle speed sensor and the wheel bearing. There is a metal ring that is attached to the axle (part number 28437FG000) - I believe that ring's only function is to keep dirt, water, and debris from affecting the wheel speed sensor. However, there is a possibility that it affects the magnetic fields needed for the wheel speed sensor to work properly (I am *not* an electrical engineer)

So, for folks that experiencing this issue after removing their hubs. Do you use a magnetic parts tray? I typically don't use mine often, but I might of when installing the extended wheel studs and put the hub too close to it at some point. I have a replacement wheel hub on order and will let folks know if this resolves the issue. I initially ordered a replacement sensor (which did not solve the issue), so my issue must be the wheel bearing.

Other notes:
1) If you a device that reads CAN (I was using a RaceCapture Track mk2), the wheel speed sensor will read 3766 kph or 2340 mph when there's no signal detected
2) The value is read immediately when putting the car into on/run. So, the ECU will know right away if it's bad.
3) If you are seeing the ludicrous speed numbers, you won't see good numbers until you turn the car off and then back on again (IT solution #1). So, if you forget to plug your sensor in, you'll have to turn the car off and back on after replugging in the sensor for it to be detected properly.
4) You can test the wheel speed sensors by swapping them and manually spinning the wheels.
5) RaceCapture Track mk2 makes a good diagnostic tool because I can see values for various CAN data and the formulas used to convert it into something usable. Since it also connects to your phone via Bluetooth, you have a wireless screen. Nice when I'm manually turning the wheels to see if the wheel speed sensors are working properly.

Anyways, I hope my ramblings help somebody out.

Just wanted to let folks know that I resolved my wheel speed sensor issue. I had replaced both the wheel speed sensor and the wheel bearing, but was still seeing the issue with the wheel speed sensor not being read properly. I was pulling the P0500 with Torque + bluetooth adapter, but I learned that it only pulls the generic DTC codes and you needed a better device to pull the vehicle specific DTC codes. So, I ordered a Autel MaxiLink ML629 scan tool and saw that I bad both current and previous DTC codes, which I cleared with the scan tool. After clearing the codes, I was able to read the vehicle speed codes with the RaceCapture Track mk2. I'm unclear if the issue would of resolved itself if I just drove the car around enough. I'm going to take the car for a drive after dinner tonight to make sure the wheel speed sensor issue doesn't pop back up again.