Hello all. I purchased my W126 back in January. About a week after the purchase, while driving normally within town, approaching a stop sign or red light, when the car got down to about 5mph, the brake pedal felt as if the ABS was trying to kick in, and the sensation was also accompanied by audible ABS chatter. The light is off until the first time I apply the brakes after starting the car. In mid February I nearly rear-ended a garbage truck in a blinding snow storm in the mountains. It was caught by a gust of wind that blew a ton of snow across the road, obscuring it from my view and spinning it out at the same time. I was able to stop the car, but only just barely. About an hour after that and one of the most harrowing drives up I70 I've ever experienced, the ABS light went back off, just in time to come back down the other side of the tunnel.

It's much more consistent now. When it's dry, it (the light) is on. If there's been rain, it's raining, or there is a significant amount of moisture, it's off, and the ABS works fine. Not the most terrible time to have the ABS, but I'd like for it to work all the time too. I don't know much about the ABS, as I've never troubleshooted one before, but it seems as if the issue is electrical, maybe just a bad sensor or connection, but when it gets wet it's functioning normally. Are there any special tools or major precautions I should be aware of before I start rooting around my brake calipers, like a 'Don't-do-this-or-you'll-ruin-your-brakes' kind of
thing?

As always, thank you all for your time and advice.

When the light is illuminated it indicates a problem with or absence of ABS. This alone does not mean you do not have brakes, simply you don't have the ABS function and you have just standard brakes we all know and enjoyed. If your are having a stopping problem it is probably more rooted into the standard brake operating system.
Specifically with ABS and even more with the SDL the most common problem is the metallic trigger that sort of looks like a miniature flywheel. ABS has many sensors and gears that are down in the elements. If you have not been exposed to dissecting this animal I encourage you to seek competent help as we don't want you getting hurt.

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Yes, of course the car still stops fine, there's no problem there. I've worked on brakes a few times before, basic things, replacing calipers, rotors, pads, bleeding, etc. I doubt I would make an error as egregious as to cause a sudden failure of the braking system.

You have a bad electrical connection that's only slightly bad. When it rains, a little water gets in and completes the connection. I would start by looking at the wiring for the wheel speed sensors, and test the sensors themselves. If those check out, I'd start looking at wiring connections from there all the way back to the ABS computer. I hope you have wiring diagrams.

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