98 Lumina LTZ ABS clicking/flickering lights.

I have a 98 Lumina LTZ 3.8 which started doing this. The battery kept going dead so I replaced it...now a week later the ABS starts clicking and making the light flicker. I was told it might be the alternator...or an ABS sensor but I'm confused as to why the lights would flicker...and when I remove the fuse for ABS they still dim. So I took the ABS fuse out and seems to be ok...but the lights still dim on occassion....and now I do not have ABS. It does sound like it might be an electrical problem....not real sure. Has anyone else ever encountered this...or can someone shed a light on what it might be ?

Bad alternator. They can cause all sorts of problems (such as a dead battery) including making the abs light, or any number of others for that matter, flicker on and off.

Bad alternator. They can cause all sorts of problems (such as a dead battery) including making the abs light, or any number of others for that matter, flicker on and off.


Would that make all of the lights flicker ? The car has been running without the ABS fuse for a week and seems to be ok. The only thing is....my lights (headlights and all) dimm and flicker. If it were the alternator wouldn't the battery be dead by now ? I replaced the battery about 3 weeks ago....it was fine for a week....then ABS started clicking and my headlights etc flickered. I took the fuse out for the ABS and the brakes seem fine....but the light dimming etc still happens. Every time I take my car to have it tested (Autozone and Advanced Auto) they don't seem to get a good reading. They are connecting their equipment with good solid connections....and still no reading. I was like....DAMN ! lol The ABS light is on now because I took the fuse out. I thought it might be the alternator but I was advised that it is probably a short. Could I have maybe left a wire off by mistake when I installed the new battery (it was hell getting to it) Thanks for any info you can share....

With the battery having continued to die, coupled with the flickering, I'm going to say alt as well. It can continue to keep power going, hence the battery not dead yet, but it can be putting out some funky voltages in the mean time.

Somebody else here had similar issues on that car, and found a loose ground wire under the dash. It does sound like something a ground fault would do.

check both battery cables for corrosion and dirt, as bad electrical connections would cause the flickering you describe.

I had a similar problem with a 98 Lumina. The headlights and dash lights kept flickering and the air bag light kept going on. It ended up being a bad automatic belt tensioner which caused the alternator to over charge which caused a short in the wire harness which caused the flickering headlights and dash lights. I had to replace the automatic belt tensioner, alternator and battery.

I need help installin an automatic belt tensioner, b/c my other broke off