2001 Chevrolet Astro: ABS light or ABS activating

Filed Sep 19, 2014 · Brakes, Electrical · 100,000 miles · WI

I am a licensed car dealer. I am very concerned at what I am seeing with my customers, with cars I see at the auctions, and with blog sites on the internet concerning chevy's ebcm computer module. At the auctions I am seeing at least 25% of chevrolets and about 10% of fords coming through with brake and ABS lights on. My main concern is with the chevy's ebcm. These very expensive units fail at the relay point on the printed circuit boards due to bad solder joints from the factory. When they fail, the driver gets a brake light and an ABS indicator light on the dash. The brakes still work on the car, but they don't work as designed. In fact the driver gets a false sense of security because his car is stopping, but in a slippery situation it will not stop as designed. When I went to the internet for ideas to fix the problem, I am finding a lot of postings saying just take the bulb out of the dash! I am also seeing ads on e bay where you can send your ebcm to a repair station, they take it apart, and re solder the joints for $49. I called the chevy dealer and they want over $1000 to fix the problem! I have heard of people selling their vehicle as is and telling the buyer that it's ok. The brakes work. I can't get the light to shut off! This is a very dangerous situation and it will become more dangerous as more and more cars are driving with inoperative ebcm computers. It looks like the defect comes from having the computer directly attached to the frames near the transmission and they are taking all the shock and vibration in that area. I am asking the government to look into this problem and issue a recall notice for defective ebcm computers. I also feel this problem is far worse than the dodge clock spring recall, and that effected all dodge vehicles. This braking problem we are seeing is bad enough that it may cause a large loss of life.

Filed Aug 19, 2013 · Brakes · 58,000 miles · FL

Brake and ABS lights come on intermittently, I had the code pulled at the auto parts store, it is the electronic ABS control module and upon googling "chevrolet brake ABS lights" it came to my attention that their appears to be thousands of vehicles with faulty ABS electronic modules which prevents the ABS function from working.

Filed Aug 8, 2013 · Brakes · 150,000 miles · IA

Going to stop at a slow speed engages ABS , causing van to not stop unless breakers were slammed on hard and hops of stopping!

Filed Nov 25, 2012 · Brakes · 198,000 miles · NY · crash

While pulling into a driveway at lowspeed I applied the brakes. The ABS light came on and all braking power was lost. My vehicle struck the one infront of me. I have been able to duplicate this low speed loss of braking.

Filed Apr 30, 2010 · Brakes · 97,000 miles · MI

Abs and brake light comes on while driving.

Filed Oct 18, 2009 · Brakes · 50,000 miles · FL

2001 chevy astro van ABS system . I have replaced every part and still have problems. I understand that this is a constant problem of this van. I think they should recall these vans before something bad happens.

Filed Oct 29, 2007 · Brakes · 110,000 miles · MI

Abs system activates at slow speeds causing increased stopping distance. This issue is sporadic, and appears to happen more often in cool or humid climate conditions.

Filed Feb 6, 2007 · Brakes · NY

2001 chevy astro -- does not stop when brakes are applied. Just keeps "sliding". Only way to fix is to remove the fuse for the ABS brakes. If fuse is in, when brakes are applied, the vehicle shutters and growls and just continues to slide and the vehicle does not stop. This happens when you are traveling at slow speeds such as coming to a stop or pulling into parking spaces. ---very dangerous--thank god husband is a mechanic and realized that taking the fuse out would stop this problem, but causes it so that there is no ABS.

Filed Dec 28, 2006 · Brakes · 27,000 miles · NY · crash

Tl* - the contact owns a 2001 chevrolet astro van. On several occasions when the driver applied the brakes the vehicle was unable to stop. The current mileage and the failure mileage was 27,000 miles. The first failure resulted in a crash into a fence. The second incident was a of couple months later, the driver drove through the garage door after applying the brakes and failing to stop the vehicle. The contact was unable to get out of the van at that time. The contact attempted to drive the van in reverse ,and noticed that the pedal's placement was in an awkward position, it seemed higher than usual. The contact was driving in a storm and experienced a similar incident with the brakes. The most recent incident occurred december 28, 2006 when the contact attempted to place the vehicle in reverse and the engine accelerated. The contact applied the brakes and the van didn't stop. The contact researched he schematics and noted that the ABS system could be affected by a function in the steering system and it could lock. The contact used a hydraulic jack, and when he started the car the wheels spun; however when he put the van back on the ground and applied the brakes there was no incident or failure in the brakes at that time. The contact stated the general motors manual , volume 1 of 2 gm-401 for the astro and mini van, page 5-4 under hydraulics list detailed information that could be related.

Filed Oct 1, 2006 · Brakes · 50,000 miles · CA

The ABS light and brake light on the dash illuminated intermittently while the vehicle was in motion. This occurred again with another general motors vehicle that the consumer owns. No repair work had been made.

Filed Jul 28, 2006 · Brakes · 161,301 miles · WV

I have a 2001 astro awd that was taken to meineke brake care center where the brake system was analyzed. The front driver (ABS) wheel sensor needed replaced. Note prior to having this done the (ABS) light came on therefore I knew that something was wrong because at a very slow stop the brake would release itself and would allow the vehicle to continue to move. After meineke analyzed the problem I had the brake sensor replaced, and the (ABS) light went off and the brakes seemed to be working normal again. However just one week ago I was driving and came to a very slow stop, mind you the light (ABS) is off and the vehicle would not stop and the brakes released all the way causing me to run into a fence. However, luckily no on was hurt or property damaged caused but without warning this could have been much more serious traveling behind another vehicle or large truck. The brakes has once again been analyzed for problems and the sensor that was replaced shows no issues. Can this possibly be a manufacturing issue that no one has reported? Please advise with any information regarding this matter, it would be much appreciated.

Filed Jun 16, 2006 · Brakes · 51,000 miles · NY

Abs not stopping the vehicle at a slow rate of speed. Vehicle is still moving but the ABS sensor thinks the wheels have stopped their for not stopping the vehicle when the brakes are applied. The chevy silverado's were recalled for this problem but chevy has not recalled this van which has the same braking system as the silverado. It has almost caused several accidents with our van.