Small victory, but I feel like celebrating. My mom's 2003 Chevy Cavalier (180ish thousand miles) had a intermittent ABS warning light on the dashboard warning her that something was wrong with the anti-lock brakes. She brought it to her mechanic and had the codes read. He told her it he could replace the ABS control board and the wheel hub. For $1,200.
He's an ok guy and told her the repair was probably not worth doing since the car is so old and would sell for $800 on a good day. She resolved to keep driving it on the theory that all cars prior to the mid-90s had no ABS anyways.
Now this car has rather high sentimental value for me, given that it was my first real car for 7 years before I gave it away to my mom. So I am always protective of it (and my mom) and I didn't like the thought of either one being without ABS.
After doing some online forum research on the troubleshooting codes he read, I suspected there was a bad electrical connection between the ABS control unit and the various sensors and the car battery. A suprising amount of people online had had success just pulling apart their their electrical connection and reassembling it. With nothing to lose, I figurted I would try it. After an hour of poking and prying out that electrical pigtail, that was the case for me, too!
It's been a few weeks and there's been no sign of the warning light. Frugality and Badassity win!