With the trailers that the ABS light goes out over 10mph it is always fun driving along with the VOSA man hung on the mirror arm
A lot of the time it is due to rust as mentioned, we had one PG 9 prohibition and a memo followed not to drive with the ABS lamp on.
Eventually the memo was forgotten about, when even the fitters were fed up of coming out to clean the exciter rings. A different story when it was found that a trailer disc had split, same warning, an orange lamp was showing, but the fine was about ÂŁ700.
Wheel Nut: With the trailers that the ABS light goes out over 10mph it is always fun driving along with the VOSA man hung on the mirror arm
A lot of the time it is due to rust as mentioned, we had one PG 9 prohibition and a memo followed not to drive with the ABS lamp on.
Eventually the memo was forgotten about, when even the fitters were fed up of coming out to clean the exciter rings. A different story when it was found that a trailer disc had split, same warning, an orange lamp was showing, but the fine was about ÂŁ700.
Itâs important that drivers are aware of this, as not all VOSA men, even workshop foremen are.
There really needs to be a standard on the colour of lights. As said above, amber is OK (ish) but red is a no no with ABS etc. Now think to engine warnings and red is an OK and amber is the no no. (Red for alternator problem which means drive to a safe place, but amber for your oil prssure which wouldnât be such a good idea)
I think you have again helped me out on a situation ive been long arguing about. I will at least now beable to say that a amber light is not always safe to drive on until you get back to the depot.
cheers for your advice
DoYouMeanMe?:
There really needs to be a standard on the colour of lights. As said above, amber is OK (ish) but red is a no no with ABS etc. Now think to engine warnings and red is an OK and amber is the no no. (Red for alternator problem which means drive to a safe place, but amber for your oil prssure which wouldnât be such a good idea)
I would think any red lamp means STOP, whether it be engine, air or alternator
DoYouMeanMe?:
There really needs to be a standard on the colour of lights. As said above, amber is OK (ish) but red is a no no with ABS etc. Now think to engine warnings and red is an OK and amber is the no no. (Red for alternator problem which means drive to a safe place, but amber for your oil prssure which wouldnât be such a good idea)
I would think any red lamp means STOP, whether it be engine, air or alternator
Not really neccasary to stop along a duel carriageway blocking a lane because you are not charging the battery (which shows a red light), well I wouldnât want to on the A38 myself and would limp to the next safe place to either repair of get the thing sorted however it needs.
However, an amber oil light means stop PDQ or you could have a bill of thousands
At the end of the day its down to the driver to use his common sense and process the information the vehicle gives him. Usually a red light would see me stopping as soon as possible, but as has been said the red charge light usually means that you can limp to the next junction and get off. However if the alternator is driven by the same belt that drives the water pump then you could have a serious problem. Another instance is the yellow engine management light, we had a discussion about a vehicle that was displaying a warning and the engine management light, someone wanted to send it out I said it shouldnât go. At the end of the day the EML can mean anything, in this case it was something silly that wouldnât have stopped the truck working but it could have been something quite major.
We have been told not to connect ABS/EBS leads on our DAFs (XF & CF) while the ignition is on.Apparently causes damage to trailer ABS sensors.Also,if ABS warning light stays on after driving a short distance,stop,switch ignition off,apply footbrake,turn ignition on,wait till you hear a valve exhaust a couple of times,then carry on.Doesnât always work,but worth a try.
Highlander:
We have been told not to connect ABS/EBS leads on our DAFs (XF & CF) while the ignition is on.Apparently causes damage to trailer ABS sensors.Also,if ABS warning light stays on after driving a short distance,stop,switch ignition off,apply footbrake,turn ignition on,wait till you hear a valve exhaust a couple of times,then carry on.Doesnât always work,but worth a try.
i was speaking to a daf man yesterday about abs problems he also told me to keep the ignition off. But he also told me to keep the lights off when connecting the lecy susies as surges can happen apparently. So i said to the fella why is the catwalk lamp linked to the lights then (no lights = no catwalk light)? He couldnât answer
On cars ive never seen a red abs light! only orange,same for trucks orange only, if i check a vehicle and the abs light is on- defected and not driven, despite TM saying"its only orange,itâll be ok" (I thought there was only orange and no red for abs,red for fluid!)
My answer usually changes his mind
Imagine your child runs out in front of me, i hit the brakes and the abs fails, i kill your child because of a faulty brake circuit just so you can get the deliveries done??
I get an orange light for abs defect. If I slam the brakes on in the yard, the abs still works. Itâs when you get the red stop light you have to worry
antilock brakes always default to full braking in the event of a failureâŚyou never get a NO brakes scenario.
there are lots of different systems with different fault warningsâŚsome throw lights in the cabâŚsome have lights on the trailerâŚsome come on then off when you brakeâŚsome come on and off when you switch the ignition onâŚthen stay off till there is a faultâŚ
abs faults are usually amber lights in the cabâŚnot red as if the system fails then you still have full brakingâŚfailsafe?
demonbiker:
On cars ive never seen a red abs light! only orange,same for trucks orange only, if i check a vehicle and the abs light is on- defected and not driven, despite TM saying"its only orange,itâll be ok" (I thought there was only orange and no red for abs,red for fluid!)
My answer usually changes his mind
Imagine your child runs out in front of me, i hit the brakes and the abs fails, i kill your child because of a faulty brake circuit just so you can get the deliveries done??
His answer⌠park it in the defect bay!
incorrect, there is also a red ABS/EBS warning on trucks i know that on the later generation DAF, there is a red ABS/EBS warning, when that comes on, there is an audible warning too
that would be bad driving on your part, the brakes wonât fail in those circumstances
shuttlespanker:
incorrect, there is also a red ABS/EBS warning on trucks i know that on the later generation DAF, there is a red ABS/EBS warning, when that comes on, there is an audible warning too
that would be bad driving on your part, the brakes wonât fail in those circumstances
We have some old step frame trailers with ABS that we canât pull with Daf units, the audible warning is on all the time, we had Daf round to try and cure but they say their system is just not compatible with these old trailers.
(ok with Volvo and Man though )
I got stopped by Vosa on the A71 at Darvel who were going to issue me with a pg 9 for having amber warning lights on with an Man unit but I showed him a plate on the front of the trailer that clearly states that the warning lights wont go out till you go faster than 9mph. I offered him the chance to take it up the road and try it for himself but he declined, he said he had never heard of that before and just told me to get on my way and forget it.
If you do get an amber light stay on it will sometimes go out after cleaning the sockets but many times I have taken them to workshops and left them , only for them to ring up later and say they canât find a fault and theres no lights staying on
How do we know that there is a defect on the ABS just because the warning light is showing.
I have had faults on dash saying âtrailer parking light defectâ when I am driving solo. There are many defects shown which when checked are non-existent.
This proves that because a warning is showing does not mean there is a fault and how does a driver know whether the ABS is working correctly or not.
Has anyone ever been sucessfully prosecuted on the sole evidence of a warning light.
On Friday I pulled three different trailers with the same unit and each one allegedly had a defective indicator. There was no fault on any of the trailers.
)
and just told me to get on my way and forget it.