2004 ION Rear Suspension with ABS

[r2thomas]

If anyone can enlighten me, I was hit on the right rear wheel and the suspension was bent (not frame, just the suspension) and I can not find used parts that accommodate ABS. What is so special about with the ABS. The body shop could find used without ABS in my price range but none with ABS.

The insurance company wants to total my car, so I have to keep the repair price low. (Less than $1500) This could be done with used parts but????

Suggestions?

[ruley73]

Exactly which parts are you needing? The only parts that are different to my knowledge are the wheel bearing/hub assemblies and you certainly don't want to install used parts for those.

EDIT: I see that www.car-part.com has a separate listing for Ion Sedans w/ABS and w/o ABS. That is kinda weird. Let me look into this a bit and I'll follow up here with my findings.

[ruley73]

What I suspected is correct. Whether the car is a Quad Coupe or Sedan doesn't even matter. Which axle beam is installed has nothing to do with whether or not a car has ABS. Only the suspension code (FE1, FE2, FE3) matters according the parts lookup.

What makes things a little messy is that GM changed suppliers and part numbers during the 2006 model year for the FE1 and FE2 axle beams. The TSB below breaks down the changes. I have no idea why www.car-part.com breaks them down like they do. My educated guess is that most junk yards are going sell them as complete units that include everything attached to the rear axles like the hub assemblies and disc/drum brake assemblies.

Long story short, the shop is just going off what their resources are telling them, but the reality is that they just need to find an axle beam from an FE1 car. Period. Your best bet is getting one from a 2003-2005 Ion 2. Again, Quad Coupe/Sedan and ABS/no ABS don't matter. You could get one from a 2006-2007 Ion, but then you'd have to worry about shops setting the alignment correctly as the TSB points out.

TSB# 05-03-09-010 info-identifying-correct-design-level-of-rear-axle-assembly-11-04-2005.pdf

[kevin.st56]

if you have to get parts individually, the wheel hubs is what you have to pay attention to, since the abs sensors are part of the wheel hubs.

I don't know if there are any consequences with running abs-less hubs on an abs equipped car.

[ruley73]

Originally Posted by kevin.st56

if you have to get parts individually, the wheel hubs is what you have to pay attention to, since the abs sensors are part of the wheel hubs.

I don't know if there are any consequences with running abs-less hubs on an abs equipped car.

It's pretty obvious that your ABS would be disabled because there are no wheel speed sensors in the non-ABS hubs. You can use ABS hubs on a non-ABS car, but not vice versa.

[kevin.st56]

Originally Posted by ruley73

It's pretty obvious that your ABS would be disabled because there are no wheel speed sensors in the non-ABS hubs. You can use ABS hubs on a non-ABS car, but not vice versa.

I didn't think so, thanks for clarifying.