There is nothing special or exotic about the brakes on that car. There's no reason a mass produced car with 230 horsepower and 130mph top speed would need NASCAR brakes made to stop an 800 horsepower car going 200mph. The brakes are identical to civilian Crown Vics. Even the high performance Marauder got basic brakes. Stock civilian Crown Vic brakes are that good. Pull the wheel off. If there are brake problems, it will be obvious on a visual inspection. The rotors will be scored badly, and the friction material will be gone. It could be a seized brake caliper as well. The fact that your ABS light is on makes me think it's brake related, as opposed to wheel bearing related.
Brakes are easy for the DIY mechanic to fix.
There should be either one bolt and a pin, or two bolts and no pin holding on the caliper. Remove the bolt(s) and the caliper. Pop out the old pads. Crack open the bleeder valve, and push the piston back into the caliper with a large c-clamp. Close the bleeder valve. Install new pads.
The rotor should just slide over the lug bolts. It may or may not have a sheetmetal washer holding it in place. You can just cut the washer off with tin snips or something. You don't need it. Remove old rotor and slide on new rotor. Re-install caliper. Repeat on other side of the car, and check your brake fluid level. Pads and rotors for one axle shouldn't run you more than about $150. It's a little more complicated if the caliper is stuck, but still within the scope of a DIY mechanic. Always replace brakes in pairs, otherwise the call will pull to one side when stopping.
Sounds and smells like the rear wheel brake is stuck on, either the parking brake drum or the disc brake caliper. That rear wheel bearing is possibly worn out, given that a former police car will have been heavily loaded and driven hard.
If the rear brake rotors are hotter than the fronts, perhaps the brake calipers are sticking because the water-logged brake fluid has never been changed and the rear caliper pistons are sticking.
wheel bearing or the brake could be locked up sounds like you might have a bigget problem, if your abs isnt working your rear brakes may be applying to hard and causing the grinding and heat issue, if it were me I would bypass the abs module all together and run the brakelines strait to the master cylnder, you make need to get a non abs master cylnder but anthing will be chaper then having the abs fixed or replaced
brakes most likely, or wheel bearings.
I'm only 17 and i dont have a lot of money sitting around so i want to diagnose this properly. The right rear wheel is making a light grinding sound, when i exit the car i can smell something like burning rubber, by rim and lug nuts are very warm or hot to the touch even after short drives. my abs light came on right before the sound started happening. Please help me out with this i would like to buy the parts and install them myself if possible. NOTE: I have not lifted the car to check the wheel bearing yet, i will be doing this tonight.
