ABS Pump and its ECU

[Mr Vlad]

Since I couldn't edit the title of the similar sounding thread I thought I'd re-do it so it's as clear as day. 

I was getting codes 1210 and 0273 after scanning with my copy of techstream. Permanent check VSC and engine light on and Brake light on and ABS light on my dash. It was really peeing me off. 

I don't know what made me check the connection from the wiring loom to the ABS pump but OMG I'm glad I did. How the hell water got into that multiplug I've no idea. These pictures tell the story. 

Anyway I had no choice but to get a replacement ABS pump which I did c/o ABS pump specialist in Cork Ireland through eBay. 

You have to be careful when choosing a pump because there are quite a few different ones even though they look the same. On top of the pump unit, the black plastic part, you'll see a series of numbers. Make sure you get matching numbers to what's on your cars pump.

Anyway today I went to a local garage and the guy swapped over pumps and bled it. 

No more lights on my dash yippeeee. 

So if you're getting the check VSC etc etc disconnect the multiplug from the ABS pump to check for water ingress damage. 

If water got into mine then there's no reason it won't get into yours.

 

[Thelongterm]

Hi Vlad,

 

Interesting and something to watch for, do you keep all the plastic covers in place?

I noticed that some of the stupid plastic pins that keeps the covers secured, get brittle in time and with the natural vibration of the engine bay may shift a bit, exposing what's beneath? Last summer I made some time and replaced all of the pins I could see, some came out as plastic dust.

Also, do you ever pressure wash in there? 

I personally never bothered with a pressure washer for anything and I trust the first owner of my car (an elderly lady) didn't bother either.

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Danny. Yes I keep the engine covers on all the time. I replaced all the locking pin studs a couple years ago. I've never pressure washed an engine bay ever. 

I can only imagine that water got near the ABS pump c/o an ill fitting windscreen A pillar mould. I replaced the offside one a couple years ago with a used one but it's fit by the scuttle left a gap of about 5mm. Replaced again last week with a new genuine one and the fit is like factory. 

[Linas.P]

7 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Since I couldn't edit the title of the similar sounding thread I thought I'd re-do it so it's as clear as day. 

I was getting codes 1210 and 0273 after scanning with my copy of techstream. Permanent check VSC and engine light on and Brake light on and ABS light on my dash. It was really peeing me off. 

I don't know what made me check the connection from the wiring loom to the ABS pump but OMG I'm glad I did. How the hell water got into that multiplug I've no idea. These pictures tell the story. 

Anyway I had no choice but to get a replacement ABS pump which I did c/o ABS pump specialist in Cork Ireland through eBay. 

You have to be careful when choosing a pump because there are quite a few different ones even though they look the same. On top of the pump unit, the black plastic part, you'll see a series of numbers. Make sure you get matching numbers to what's on your cars pump.

Anyway today I went to a local garage and the guy swapped over pumps and bled it. 

No more lights on my dash yippeeee. 

So if you're getting the check VSC etc etc disconnect the multiplug from the ABS pump to check for water ingress damage. 

If water got into mine then there's no reason it won't get into yours.

 

Did your car as well got limp home mode? 

Because I am battling same issue and I was told it is ABS pump, but in my case ABS pump connector is not corroded and I was kind of reluctant to pay £600 for the pump just to find out if that is true or not. Like you I have permanent VSC and ABS lights, but I only get one code - 1201 and nothing else and my car has limp-home mode (does not rev past ~3.5k).

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Linas. No my car didn't go into limp mode. 

I paid £118.00 for my replacement pump from the place I mentioned. Got a few mo ths guarantee with it. I contacted them over something and they came back to me in a most pleasant way. For the price I paid look on eBay but make a note of the numbers on top of the pump on the plastic part. 3 rows of numbers 2 columns. There are used pumps on eBay at under 50 quid but I chose the seller coz he had the one I needed plus tested and a guarantee. No brainer at that price. 

Can't remember if you have techstream but you need a scanner that does ABS bleeding. Some good videos on YouTube. 

[Linas.P]

Yes I have TechStream, but I suspect there is something more wrong with my car than just ABS pump, because as mentioned mine is in limp-mode. 

And yes £600, should clarify - that is Lexus price for brand new one. There are many for as low as £12 on eBay, but I do not believe they will be anymore alive than the one I am replacing, so it is better to find refurbished or at least tested unit, because time fitting it and bleeding it isn't free either. 

As for connectors getting corroded - I put it down to covid 😄 but seriously... basically I think this happens as result of cars being parked for long periods of time... I have a lot of electrical issues with my car and it is all down to bad connections... and I found dozen corroded connectors in places where it is impossible for them to corrode e.g. one of the terminals near ECU, which is sealed connector which itself sits in the sealed box. It just cannot get wet! How did it corrode?!

[Mr Vlad]

Since you have techstream Linas I'd test the pump by doing a bleed test. This will show if the pump works or not.

And blimey. Corrosion found in connectors in sealed areas? That's weird. Something somewhere within that sealed area there must be air leak.

And yes since your car is in a limp mode then there's a different issue. But our cars have the weirdest electrics. I mean. A dodgy fuel cap bringing up a check VSC? 

I thought I had a dodgy handbrake switch as it would come on willy nilly. But guess what. It was that corrosion in the ABS pump connector plug.

Easy cars to work on but crazy electrics.

[Linas.P]

The thing is - I can't connect with TechStream at all... 1201 is "ECU communication issue", so basically it does not allow any comms on can-bus. I had guy to come over to check the car and his professional scan-tool reported it could not connect to ABS computer. He speculated that because ABS pump is where can-bus terminates it could cause the communication to fail. However, if that were the case then simply disconnecting it should allow communication to resume, but it doesn't... so I was not very satisfied with his diagnostics.

Yes Lexus are mechanically reliable cars, but electronically complex... so if something electrical goes wrong it's nightmare to fix or even find what needs fixing.

[Mr Vlad]

Yeah that 1201 code is a ummer. I find it strange that the guy who came to you said by disconnecting it would resume communication. 

When I had my pump fitted I was in my car with techstream running. When the fitter disconnected the pump techstream couldn't connect to the pump which implies that there must be an in and an out signal. 

What I found was 1201 was difficult to delete. The way I did it was to go through the health scan which takes ages. When the scan finished and showed the code only then could I delete it via the engine symbol. 

It may be worth it buying a cheap pump and not connecting it hydraulically but just by the multiplug and see if the code can be deleted. If that's the case then surely that's proof the pump on the car is shot.

[Linas.P]

5 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

It may be worth it buying a cheap pump and not connecting it hydraulically but just by the multiplug and see if the code can be deleted. If that's the case then surely that's proof the pump on the car is shot.

That is what I did right away after reading you post 😄 even if pump is busted maybe it could be used just to trigger code reset. 

Lexus is sometimes funny with these things... modules gets locked out and do not take instructions to delete codes. So sometimes there is literally nothing wrong, but just swapping module and then reconnecting it back could remove some codes.

That is what happened with my immobiliser ID BOX, I could not delete the code from it and car would not start, put new ID BOX in, but didn't have matching steering lock to complete the loop and start the car. However, that was enough to trigger something and I was able to delete the immobiliser code and then car worked after reconnecting old ID BOX. So ID BOX wasn't even bad, it was code that got stuck. 

Interesting info regarding health check - I may try running it and see if it helps to reset codes.

[Mr Vlad]

What? You actually got a used pump and connected it to the wiring but not the fluids and that didn't work? Blimey you're going through some head rubber ducks with that car. I'd have given up by now.

[Linas.P]

Just now, Mr Vlad said:

What? You actually got a used pump and connected it to the wiring but not the fluids and that didn't work? Blimey you're going through some head rubber ducks with that car. I'd have given up by now.

No - I just bought it on Sunday or Monday... waiting for it to be delivered. But that was my plan to do.

[Mr Vlad]

Ah right. Let us know how you get on. 

[Linas.P]

Some news... so after plugin in spare pump the DTC1201 is gone... meaning it was the pump which was causing comms error, which is good news! But the replacement pump, to surprise of no one is dead on arrival, so I now getting code U0102 - "communication lost with ABS module". So this one is going back and I am looking for good tested one now. 

It is like a story with throttle body - bought like 4 cheapest ones, all of them were dead. Returned them showing testing results to the guys who sold them to me and that they are dead... few days later they just relisted them... waste of time with scrappers - they never check if parts are working. 

[Mr Vlad]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/abspumpspecialist?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=5sAh-GRrRLq&sssrc=3418065&ssuid=WKLhtmKvT-C&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Try this company Linas. Its where I got mine from. 

Great news about the code gone 👍

[Linas.P]

Whilst I was waiting for working ABS pump to arrive I was fooling around the broken one which I have ordered. Basically it looks like you can undo 4 screws and remove just the electrical part (which is what most likely has failed). This would make a lot of sense, and despite being awkwardly placed, would save time compared to draining brake fluid and bleeding entire system.

Now sadly I wanted to report that Lexus/Toyota made it so it can't be repaired... honestly it is obvious from design that they did it deliberately and my personal opinion is that it should be illegal. Anyway as the pump was trash anyway I didn't mind applying some destructive disassembly in attempt to learn more about how it is put together. 

Basically the construction is as follows - the 4 screws holds entire electrical part of the pump onto the body with dozen solenoids and one big electrical motor, it even has rubber gasket there suggesting they probably designed it to be removed (or there may be different models that can be taken apart), but then they decided to seal it. Basically there is 5th hidden screw, which is under separate glued cover... and this cover does not have gasket, it is just sealed with epoxy. And then the screw actually sits under the PCB, making it impossible to remove without first soldering out like 50 contacts. Point is - the sole purpose of this screw is to make the whole thing disposable. Now theoretically one can carefully pry the cover of PCB with like razor blade, maybe a sharp chisel... then remove 50+ contacts from the board... and then whole assembly can be removed, but the whole thing is clearly designed in such a way to make this redundant an requiting replacement of whole unit if either solenoid body or electrical part fails. 

Pretty disappointed... both because not I will have to deal with massive nuisance of bleeding everything, but as well because it is legal to make such anti-consumer designs which only generates more waste. So yes - if anyone wondering, just replacing electrical part is not an option and there are no shortcuts. 

[Mr Vlad]

wow Linas you have surprised me that the black electrical part of the pump is a swine to take off. I've seen videos where that part on other ABS units come off relatively easily But care has to be taken because of plunger type looking things that fit into a type of cylinder. 

But hey ho the ones fitted to our is250's look like to be disposable types. Stupid. Probably that's why whole units are for sale and not just one half or the other. 

Much appreciated you posted what you did 👍