4G Intermittent brake failure (Scary)

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:49 pm

Everyone wants to see it!

Post by **RattyMcClelland** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 6:02 pm

Are you sure it was the brakes and not the actual road surface. My brakes have failed to work but it was the road surface and the tyres locked but you couldnt hear them screech.
Iv had horrible brake fade on cheap pads and sometimes thats when the brakes are cold.

But not good whatever the problem is.

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 6:36 pm

well you drive a car with an obvious fault and expect to not come a cropper maybe next time a warning light will actually be heeded.
I am glad he and the car are ok mate but the lights are there for a reason

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:25 pm

mercutio wrote:well you drive a car with an obvious fault and expect to not come a cropper maybe next time a warning light will actually be heeded.
I am glad he and the car are ok mate but the lights are there for a reason

I agree, in general.
Except that as indigolemon suggests, an intermittent ABS warning light fault shouldn't mean total brake failure. I think most of us would have taken a calculated risk on something like this, especially when the brakes had functioned brilliantly before. You've got to get home somehow!

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:40 pm

I know buddy but I wont drive with a fault the abs may not be at fault but the light is telling you something is wrong it needs to be found

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 11:42 pm

RattyMcClelland wrote:Are you sure it was the brakes and not the actual road surface. My brakes have failed to work but it was the road surface and the tyres locked but you couldnt hear them screech.

No, not 100% sure. Sometimes aquaplaning can feel a bit like the brakes have gone wrong.

I know buddy but I wont drive with a fault the abs may not be at fault but the light is telling you something is wrong it needs to be found

Again, I agree.

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 10:31 am

Normally, when the ABS light comes on, the pistons used to modulate the braking force on each circuit will stay in the middle (eg, no effect), and braking should act as normal, as if there was no ABS.

However, if the ABS light has been off, and you drive it around (expecting it to come on), this is not a safe place to be.

I had an experience once whereby some previous owner idiot (rover 620ti - bit like an accord) had replaced a driveshaft with a non-facelift version, with differing ABS wheel teeth number compared to the other 3 wheels.

Most of the time, the light was off and braking was fine, however occasionally, under a bit of heavy braking, the abs would kick in thinking the front left was locking up (but it wasnt). This resulted in ABS kicking in more an more to correct the perceived locking up, until it was like driving on ice , when driving on a perfectly normal road.

It took me a long time to find the cause, but it also taught me not to 'soft reset' an error more than once. If they system isn't happy with something, blindly resetting it over and over one day could lead to trouble, just when the ABS needs to be working.

In your case though, the ABS light was before the incident so id rule ABS out.

Good luck finding the cause though.