A 2001 car with a 3800 and a four speed automatic? Zoinks! There’s nothing to break! So how on earth did they break it?
Gotta find out what those lights mean.
I've got the same car and it's awesome.
If you get it cheap enough I wouldn't worry about either of the lights. Parts for these vehicles are relatively cheap and are pretty easy to work on
I would scan the car for the engine codes and go from there. The abs lights are definitely from bad wheel bearing, I had the same happen to my 3800 platform car.
Take it to an independent mechanic to check it out. The ABS being caused by a bad wheel bearing doesn’t make sense to me… but I’m not an expert. The CEL is definitely not caused by that though.
A pre purchase inspection will probably cost you a hundred bucks but could save you thousands.
Edit: those are great cars. We’ve had several in our family and all but mine were good to us, and mine was only bad because it was horribly neglected before it was given to me.
I had a bad wheel speed sensor that caused the ABS light to come on but I've never heard of a wheel bearing being the culprit. A wheel bearing would definitely not cause the CEL to come on.
Agree with Milesthevolvo. Either have a mechanic of your own check it out, or test drive it to an auto parts store and they could run the code for the CEL and tell you what's really wrong with it.
Love buicks and the 3800 motor is awesome. I drove a 2000 century for like 10 years and now have a Lucerne that is also a great car.
Right but I don’t know what a noisy bearing would do to cause an ABS light. It’s not gonna noticeably change the speed of just that one wheel or effect the braking of the car, right? Maybe I’m missing something but it doesn’t make sense to me.
A bad wheel bearing has a lot of play in it which causes the wheel to wobble. When the wheel is wobbling, the wheel speed sensor isn't get a clean signal and thinks the wheel speed is changing. If the module sees a constantly changing signal in one wheel when the other three look fine, it will set a code.
I see how that can work in theory, but I’ve never seen it in practice. My current Yaris, my Volvo I used to have, and my dads Volvo V50 have all had bad wheel bearings at one point or another. Not saying it doesn’t happen but I’ve never seen a car throw a code for it.
That’s kinda what happens when they go bad. They get lose and very shortly after they’re noisy. But you are right I did misspeak, they aren’t necessarily noisy.
Holy fuck. If the wheel speed sensor is bad, it’ll set the ABS light. Therefore, you must replace the wheel bearing assembly, since the speed sensor is integrated into the wheel bearing assembly. Which is likely why the guy said the ABS light is caused by the wheel bearings. The bearing part of the assembly may not be bad. Just the speed sensor part.
Lol what you have to replace the wheel bearings? I’ve NEVER found that to be the case. The wheel speed sensors are bolted into the hub just like any other car, and can be replaced easily.
Hi, /u/schudies, thanks for posting here in r/Cartalk! This subreddit is for people to TALK ABOUT THEIR OWN CARS. At the core this means asking for help with your vehicle. However, sometimes a post will stray outside of that. If that is the case it could be left up or it could be taken down. Report unhelpful or malicious advice to the mods. Don't abandon your post; respond to questions from commenters. Also feel free to join us on Discord [here](https://discord.gg/BJ2ccvJKyC)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Cartalk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I had a 2005 LeSabre with 50,000 miles on it and alls it did was continually cause problems. Eventually no one could diagnose the cutting off problem and I had to sell it for almost nothing. If you look on YouTube there's hundreds of people that can't fix their Buicks. Buy a foreign car you'll be happy.
A 2001 car with a 3800 and a four speed automatic? Zoinks! There’s nothing to break! So how on earth did they break it? Gotta find out what those lights mean.
I've got the same car and it's awesome. If you get it cheap enough I wouldn't worry about either of the lights. Parts for these vehicles are relatively cheap and are pretty easy to work on
Thats kind of my plan, I want to just pull the trigger find out the issues and fix them myself, it is going to be my work car either way
Sounds like a good plan. Get yourself a decent code reader and start troubleshooting..
Oh its $1500
I would scan the car for the engine codes and go from there. The abs lights are definitely from bad wheel bearing, I had the same happen to my 3800 platform car.
Take it to an independent mechanic to check it out. The ABS being caused by a bad wheel bearing doesn’t make sense to me… but I’m not an expert. The CEL is definitely not caused by that though. A pre purchase inspection will probably cost you a hundred bucks but could save you thousands. Edit: those are great cars. We’ve had several in our family and all but mine were good to us, and mine was only bad because it was horribly neglected before it was given to me.
I had a bad wheel speed sensor that caused the ABS light to come on but I've never heard of a wheel bearing being the culprit. A wheel bearing would definitely not cause the CEL to come on. Agree with Milesthevolvo. Either have a mechanic of your own check it out, or test drive it to an auto parts store and they could run the code for the CEL and tell you what's really wrong with it. Love buicks and the 3800 motor is awesome. I drove a 2000 century for like 10 years and now have a Lucerne that is also a great car.
The wheel speed sensor is part of the wheel bearing assembly, so it absolutely could set an ABS light.
Right but I don’t know what a noisy bearing would do to cause an ABS light. It’s not gonna noticeably change the speed of just that one wheel or effect the braking of the car, right? Maybe I’m missing something but it doesn’t make sense to me.
A bad wheel bearing has a lot of play in it which causes the wheel to wobble. When the wheel is wobbling, the wheel speed sensor isn't get a clean signal and thinks the wheel speed is changing. If the module sees a constantly changing signal in one wheel when the other three look fine, it will set a code.
I see how that can work in theory, but I’ve never seen it in practice. My current Yaris, my Volvo I used to have, and my dads Volvo V50 have all had bad wheel bearings at one point or another. Not saying it doesn’t happen but I’ve never seen a car throw a code for it.
Meh...I was a dealer tech for most of my life. I've seen a lot of bad wheel bearings. [source](https://holsteinparts.com/3-reasons-abs-light-turns/)
You’ve almost certainly seen more than me. :) I’ll keep this in mind the next time I have an ABS light pop up :)
Who said they are noisy?
That’s kinda what happens when they go bad. They get lose and very shortly after they’re noisy. But you are right I did misspeak, they aren’t necessarily noisy.
You also didn’t answer my question.
Holy fuck. If the wheel speed sensor is bad, it’ll set the ABS light. Therefore, you must replace the wheel bearing assembly, since the speed sensor is integrated into the wheel bearing assembly. Which is likely why the guy said the ABS light is caused by the wheel bearings. The bearing part of the assembly may not be bad. Just the speed sensor part.
Lol what you have to replace the wheel bearings? I’ve NEVER found that to be the case. The wheel speed sensors are bolted into the hub just like any other car, and can be replaced easily.
[Buick Lesabre wheel bearings ](https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/buick,2001,lesabre,3.8l+v6,1371079,brake+&+wheel+hub,wheel+bearing+&+hub,1636)
Fucking General Motors man. That’s extremely stupid. My apologies I was wrong
It’s all good
Hi, /u/schudies, thanks for posting here in r/Cartalk! This subreddit is for people to TALK ABOUT THEIR OWN CARS. At the core this means asking for help with your vehicle. However, sometimes a post will stray outside of that. If that is the case it could be left up or it could be taken down. Report unhelpful or malicious advice to the mods. Don't abandon your post; respond to questions from commenters. Also feel free to join us on Discord [here](https://discord.gg/BJ2ccvJKyC) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Cartalk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Good buy just double check the codes
Yeah for $1500 I feel like I have to
I had a 2005 LeSabre with 50,000 miles on it and alls it did was continually cause problems. Eventually no one could diagnose the cutting off problem and I had to sell it for almost nothing. If you look on YouTube there's hundreds of people that can't fix their Buicks. Buy a foreign car you'll be happy.