Hi s-max friends,

As with many other Ford drivers, I'm getting the ABS warning intermittently for the first couple of minutes driving (it then clears itself). Usually the steering is a bit heavy and the Hill start assist light comes on too.

The battery, which I understand is a common cause, has been recently replaced. I don't think it's the cause as all start/stop and all touch locks work well.

The garage want £400 to replace the ABS sensors! Or more money to diagnose the cause.

Attached is the Forscan DTC file (Bluetooth adapter only). U0415 seems obvious.

Can anyone advise on the cause please?

DTC_2026-04-23_11.50.25.txt.txt

PS - I tried turning the wheels full lock left to right a few times but again hard to tell if it's fixed as it's intermittent.

Any ideas anyone?

Well, if you want my ideas (you may decide to wait for more replies), I'd monitor each of the wheel sensors and perhaps steering angle sensor etc, in Forscan live data to see if there's any intermittent drop outs at one or more, and go from there?
Just saying change all sensors is a stupid guess IMHO but always ready to learn otherwise as it could be a wiring fault?
Of course it could be cheaper than a couple of hours diagnostics charges which you can easily avoid for under £40 but how likely is changing them all to find the actual fault??

Thanks. I didn't know about Forscan live data. I shall attempt something and report back...

I've given it a good charge, bought the vlinker cable, and changed the soc to 95% - seems to be helping.

( Most info on the internet talks about abs sensor failure Vs low battery is under reported. It makes sense that it's low battery where no pecific abs sensor error codes, and because turning the wheels uses lots of battery for the power steering etc )

If changing the battery SoC has completely cured it, fine but I'd still monitor the sensor outputs to see if there's any symptom of one or more sensors giving a bad reading (is this shown as road speed and is there a graph?)

The lights came on again BUT I realised:

1. I had used a generic Bluetooth code reader NOT the recommend cable.

2. Having now used the cable, more codes are showing (not the Uxxx Comms codes)

3. Specifically I have the error code for driver abs sensor, and also steering wheel position.

The garage charge c. £105 for replacing one abs sensor so I'll try that and report back.