Wheel Speed Sensor

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2018 Ford Escape. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

On vehicles not equipped with active park assist, all 4 wheel speed sensors are active (magneto resistive) sensors that operate on the Hall-effect principle to generate a square wave signal that is proportional to the rotational speed of the wheel. Because these are active sensors, receiving voltage from the ABS module and then sending a varying voltage back to the ABS module, they are able to detect much lower rotational speeds than passive (magnetic inductive) sensors. Each wheel speed sensor is connected to the ABS module by 2 circuits. One circuit provides voltage for sensor operation and the other circuit provides sensor input to the ABS module.

On vehicles equipped with active park assist, both rear wheel speed sensors are active, bi-directional sensors. Each of the 2 sensors contain 2 sensing elements mounted side-by-side. Because the 2 sensing elements are mounted next to each other the 2 voltage signals are slightly out of phase, which causes one element to generate a voltage signal before the other element. This allows the ABS module to not only determine wheel speed, but also wheel direction for active park assist.