I bought a 2003 Hemi Ram 4x4 with some known problems and this is one of them. There is grinding noise up front and the ABS light/brake light is on. I don't know if the grinding noise is the steering rack(leaking) or the hub bearings(excessive play) or just the rotors and pads. What do you guys think? I will provide as much information as possible. Thanks in advance.

i had a problem with my abs brake light also. it would constantly appear after driving more than 5 miles. when i turned the truck off it would go off and come back on again when i went for a little drive.

so, i was told that the abs/brake sensor is magnetic. so there was metal shards that were floating in my rear diff, being attracted to the senor, covering it up, causing it to go off. after looking in my rear diff., i pretty much killed the rear or blew it. so i wound up putting 4.56 gears in with a detriot tru trac system and havent had the abs brake light come on once in the past 5 months the gears have been in.

this is what happened to me. i don't know about your case, hopefully it isnt as bad as mine.

p.s. i also wanted 4.56 gears sometime in the future, so i decided to do it then instead of waiting and having to install gears again for a third time in the future.


hope all works out well for you!

Well I think I figured it out. I jacked it up and tried to spin the problem wheel. Well it would not move what so ever. So I took the wheel off and was tapping the caliper thinking it was stuck. But to my surprise I looked on the inside of the rotor and noticed some metal cylindrical pieces laying on the spindle. Taking a closer look those metal pieces were the little rollers inside the wheel bearing. So I'm thinking the metal on metal friction heated the brakes up and set the brake and ABS lights off. I'm taking it to the dealership to get the bearing and all the rotors and pads done, just to be safe.

sounds good, best of luck at the dealership

we dont even have ABS for the front wheels our trucks are 1 channel for the rear wheels, and the speed sensor is in the differential, and yes the dodge rams have been prone to VSS problems due to metal shavings getting attracted to the sensor and causing a problem.

I think 4w abs was optional on 03's and 04's.