2001 SR5 4x4 christmas lights

[supra92]

So I was driving home the mile or so from the grocery store, and somewhere on the way the VSC Trac, VSC Off, handbrake, and ABS lights all came on.... and the speedometer stopped working and fell to 0. The tach continued to work just fine.

Nothing felt or sounded wrong -- it drove normally, no issues finishing the drive. I've already replaced both O2 sensors on this a couple years back.

I've had other cars where the christmas lights all came up, but it's never been in conjunction with the speedo failing simultaneously. Any ideas what the most likely culprit is here? Speedo cable maybe?

[EDIT] "AI" says the most likely cause is an ABS wheel speed sensor:
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"The most likely culprit for all of those dashboard lights and the speedometer failing simultaneously is a faulty ABS wheel speed sensor
. All of the systems that failed rely on the wheel speed sensor for information. A problem with this sensor causes all the connected systems to shut down and trigger their corresponding warning lights.
Here's a breakdown of why this happens:

Speedometer: Your speedometer gets its reading from a wheel speed sensor, usually the one on the rear differential on 4x4 models or on the transmission. A bad sensor or connection will interrupt this signal and cause your speedometer to drop to zero."
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Is this actually the first place to check?

-supra92

 

[phattyduck]

Your truck has no speedo cable. The speedometer signal comes from the ABS system that also runs the VSC/TRAC system and the electronic brake booster system on the 01/02. There isn't enough info to know if this is a sensor issue, ABS computer issue or a actuator issue (brake booster)...

Transmission shifting is handle by the ECU and a different set of sensors, so that should be fine. You do want to fix this to get optimal performance back from the brakes.

-Charlie

 

[supra92]

I also own a 1992 Toyota Supra, that's probably where I was getting the speedo cable mental picture from. I had one of those break when I was reinstalling the gauge pod after doing a transplant of a supermonitor computer in my previous '87 Supra.

Drove the 4R to work today without issue, and of course without the ABS speed sensor, the odo and trip meters aren't functional either. It otherwise drives just fine, although as you noted, slamming on the brakes in an emergency maneuver is probably ill-advised right now in particular.

Will do some research on how easily these four ABS speed sensors are to access and test/verify. Rather avoid taking this to the shop if possible. From the little I've read thus far, it seems testing each sensor with a multimeter and seeing if one of them is way out of whack compared to the other three is one way to narrow down where the issue lies.