So I was driving around when suddenly all of my dash lights lit up while going 50 in 5th gear. The car sputtered a bit, but kept driving normally for about 2 miles. I pulled over to check if there was anything wrong. I came to a complete stop and it idled fine, but the second i put it in reverse, the car died. I turned the ignition off, and restarted the engine. When I started it up the abs light was on (it never threw a code when i had pulled codes 2 days ago.) So I turned the car off again, and began pulling codes. ABS code 81. What a drag.. I put everything back together and planned to head home. When I fired her up again, no ABS light, but it still throws code 81. should I be worried? New ABS cpu's aren't cheap, and the stealership is out to massacre my money supply. Any helpful tips are appreciated. Thanks guys.

--Brenden

 

What you likely experienced was a safety feature in the ATTS system where it enacts a momentary fuel cut when it detects a malfunction in the system (ie when the ABS code was thrown). I'm not sure why it would have died when you put it in reverse however.

As for the code 81, I would try clearing the ABS control unit codes (just pulling the battery cable will NOT clear ABS codes) and see if it comes back; if it does, just contact someone who is doing a part-out and get another one for cheap.