Have anyone replaced their front ABS sensors with sensors from another car?

[eraezer]

Hello,
I'm trying to find other options since there really are no reasonable ways to replace the front sensors with stock units as they can only (as far as I've seen) be bought second hand and they are expensive.

With all the online autopart stores there are a lot of different sensors available new for a cheap price. I find it hard to believe that there are no sensors out there with the same dimensions. So I've started to look.

But before I buy every available cheap sensor I'm curious to see if anyone has already done the work?

I've also reached out to a few companies and the only one that have replied so far is TRW who basically said no to helping out because of this sensor being classified as a safety component...

These sensors are very simple, basically just a core with a coil so plan b is to make my own.

I'm currently looking into some VAG sensors as they happened to be on sale. I'm hoping that I can modify these to suite our application.

So, is anyone sitting on some good information?

 

[Enraged]

They are VR sensors aren't they? 2 wire? Maybe a Honeywell or Bosch sensor would fit?

https://www.efihardware.com/products/c223/Cam-Crank-Speed-Sensors

Bosch Motorsport Speed Sensors - Motorsport Systems

Bosch Motorsport Speed Sensors; Hall Effect and inductive Speed Sensors.

www.motorsport-systems.co.uk

 

[Zazzn]

I'm sure there has to be similar sensors in the late 80's 90's camrys and stuff, they are just VR sensors. They must fit, I doubt toyota mad a shit load of sensors for one specific car.

 

[eraezer]

Yes, they are "simple" VR sensors and I agree, it seems very weird if a company like Toyota would use different sensors on every car.

What makes our sensor a little bit complicated is that it's reading radial compared to the sensor and the sensor is aligned with the wheel axis. Most other sensors are reading axial to the sensor and the sensor is mounted radial to the wheel axis.
This makes it hard to use a VR sensor intended for Crank/Cam setups on our cars. Although I've seen people do it on cars where the sensor is mounted radial to the wheel axis.

Since our setup goes inside the hub of the brake disc there is no room to install a sensor radial to the wheel axis.

What would happen if an active sensor was used, fed with correct voltage and added resistors so that the ABS unit reads the correct impedance?
If that would work, I think the land cruiser sensors would be a nice option. Just need to 3Dprint an adapter for the body.

 

[Zazzn]

Maybe check out any RWD from the era, do mk4 or maybe gs300 sensors work? Never looked but maybe they could work as well as another option.

 

[eraezer]

I've been looking at all kinds of sensors. The MK4 and GS300 etc. are reading radial to the wheel axis so they can use a typical VR or HALL sensor.

I've found the Land Cruiser from 1998 to be something similar to ours, it's quite specific in model and the numbers from A.B.S. are 31501 and 31500. These look like a plastic version of ours but they might be to short. The price is a little bit too much for me to just buy and try.

Regarding the output;
A passive sensor like ours outputs a sine wave and the active ones output a square wave. I'm not sure what would happen if it's expecting a sine wave but receives a square wave. I guess the important thing is the zero crossing.

I was also looking in to the sensors on MX5 which design is also used on volvo 960 and some MB's. A friend who have a MX5 let me measure his front sensor but the diameter was 17.5mm so about 1mm bigger than our. The nice thing with these sensors is that the tip that does the reading can be easily modified for different lengths. (This is regarding their front sensors).

 

[Piratetip]

How about a Toyota Previa?
That shares a lot of parts for some reason.

 

[Piratetip]

The Toyota Estima rear ABS sensor might be another option.
Someone would have to pick up some sensors to measure and compare bore size and overall length.

 

[eraezer]

Ill have a look at the Previa and Estima.

Some sites have entered some of the dimensions so I guess I'm putting together an excel sheet

For reference: (I will correct these measurements when I get home)
Part of the sensor body that sticks out from the upright: 14.7 mm
Sensor tip: 7.5mm
Thickness of upright: ~15mm
Total length that can be compared to other sensors: 37.2mm

Thanks!

 

[Piratetip]

I bet there is something that is close enough to retrofit.

 

[Enraged]

That's the stock MKIII sensor, correct?

Dorman sells a ton of different ones. A Chevrolet Express 2500 rear wheel speed sensor looks similar.

 

[Piratetip]

Yeah that's it.
Appears to be pulling signal / teeth from the side actually, not the bottom.
I'll dig through some old photos and check.

There are other sensors that have the pickup on the side, vs the tip.

 

[eraezer]

Yes, like the volvos and mb and mx5. The nice thing about those sensors is that the tip can be trimmed. So that would maybe mean that they can be extended as well. I guess the difference is just the length of the tip.
I wonder if one can glue an extension on the ones measuring on the short end of the tip. It wouldnt be robust...