ABS on this truck is dangerous...

Haha.... water is still a little deep after 4 years lol, thanks for the heads up.

 

Hmmm, good idea. I'll try that. I love my truck, hope to keep it till it dies but not if its going to kill me first. Frustrating because I am a 4 time 60s ford owner before buying this and I have never doubted brakes until now. Don't have a place to tear it apart myself anymore so I have to trust someone else to fix it now and always been skeptical of a computer doing the work for me. I hope I figure it out, haven't been off roading in months because I lost faith in stopping when I want to.

 

Maybe I worded that wrong lol. Has 130k and just started doing it last 2-3 months, only put 6 miles a day on her, live really close to work and drive my ranchero on weekends usually. First 129.9k has been flawless.

 

I hear ya. I'm not a huge fan of computers either with vehicles. The world we live in today. Hope you get it worked out.

 

I think I figured it out. This morning after first push of brakes backing out of my spot, abs light goes on. Pulled back in and called off work. Friend came by and we replaced the wheel speed sensor (after researching a bit what could be wrong now). Reset the code, and took it for a test. Brakes work great. Tried hitting them hard, tried hitting them with two wheels on the train track in the road by me, they abs activated nicely and felt very smooth and controllable. Took it to some dirt and hit em again, she feels right as rain now. I think it knew I was on here looking for answers and decided to just make it obvious for me. Was the dang sensor causing the problem the whole time?

 

After having my 06 Tacoma for 8 years I have sold it. I loved the truck except for the abs issue. It is real and scary like many here have talked about. I won't miss the stress it caused with winter driving. So excited to see how the new 4X4 is going to be in the snow.

RIP 06 Tacoma and your brake issues...

 

On several occasions I have Suddenly and unexpectedly had NO brakes. The last time this happened I was approaching a red light with stopped vehicles in front of me. Traveling about 20 mph on a slightly wet road. Zero brakes. It was terrifying. I've been driving for nearly 40 years and have never experienced this before. The closest thing was driving a VW Bug thru deep puddles, getting brakes wet, requiring pumping to dry/stop. This did not feel ANYTHING like that. Working one second, and NOTHING the next. Narrowly missed bad accident. I see from this forum that many others are experiencing same thing. Hoping that you could share how this possibly LIFE-THREATENING defect can be remedied. Dealership garage found "nothing wrong", called Toyota Customer Svc. and awaiting their return phone call. VERY SCARED to drive.

 

Did you feel the ABS pulsation in the brake pedal ?

 

I still experience this problem with my 2007, I'm just very, very careful about it. I'm absolutely amazed that Toyota hasn't done something about this yet. I can't believe it hasn't caused more accidents.

I did recently get a PM from someone who said they did have a minor accident due to the ABS killing all braking power.

 

I did not get another Tacoma. I got an SUV.

 

A lot of times it's the tires on the vehicle. For example my sister has a kia rio that the abs would kick it if you looked at the brake pedal. We just put new winter tires on it and it is a completely new car and abs will only kick in if you are going very fast and slam on brakes.

 

Welcome to the world of crappy tacoma ABS systems. Mine has acted exactly as you described since the first time it saw snow. I bought the truck in Nov 2002 and had it back to the dealer 2 weeks later to look at the ABS system. It went back at least 5 times and each time they told me nothing was wrong. At one point during the trucks life I installed a dedicated set of snow tires and the problem continued. After a couple of really close calls I finally made the decision to pull the ABS fuse and be done with it.

I've been driving the truck with the ABS fuse removed for close to 6 yrs with no problems. The truck goes where I want it to and stop when I want it too. I have never been in a situation where I wished the ABS was still there.

Finding a way to disable the ABS via a switch would be the ultimate solution and I would consider doing it IF someone came up with the solution but for the time being my ABS is off and staying that way.

 

ABS does not "kill" your brake power. if youre braking to the point where ABS has to engage than not having ABS would be even worse in that situation. you can argue that point till your blue in the face but theres a reason ABS is pretty standard on vehicles now a days. ABS is not meant to help you stop the vehicle....its designed to help you stay in control of your vehicle. this is where alot of people confuse ABS in thinking the car doesnt want to stop when its engaged.

all bets are off in the snow and rain. only thing you can do to ensure control is slow down. ABS much like 4wheel drive have no bearing on how YOU control your own vehicle in those type of road conditions. however, people often blame the vehicle when something happens and dont take into consideration everything else thats happening around them.

FWIW...every manufacturer's ABS/VSC/TRAC systems work pretty much the same. they may feel differant and act differantly depending the vehicle, but generally do the same thing.

 

ABS increases stopping distances in snow .

Fact

 

X2

 

Not arguing that but I had an ABS engagement last week that sure felt like that , flat surface , I was travelling at about 25kmh ( 15mph ) coming up to a stop sign , eased on the brakes didn't slam them on , and ABS kicked on immediately and there was zero deceleration , my speed remained constant as I chattered toward the stop sign . The brake pedal seemed to increase in stiffness gradually as if there was an increasing resistance pressure being created . It is unnerving to feel like you have no ability to slow the vehicle , this paired with the lack of deceleration when it is expected is probably what people attribute the sense of acceleration to .

I'm positive that without the ABS system's " help " , I could have either hammered on my brakes and plowed to a stop , or used the threshold style of braking that I learned to drive in snow with in order to bring the vehicle to a stop .

 

Well..thats your opinion sir and you're entitled to it. but i respectfully disagree with you. its not the safety equipments job to stop the vehicle, its simply there to aid you control it. ABS, just like traction control and VSC, are features designed to help keep the Driver in control of their vehicle.
ill give you an example...VSC. your driving on the highway and take an off ramp at a speed of 45mph and it states 20mph limit, going into the turn too hard will enable VSC to help you control the car going around that turn....however, you go into that turn at 75...VSC will not help you and you'll probably flip your truck. would you blame the truck in that situation aswell? claim the VSC didnt operate as it should have?

but like i said..incase you missed it. when youre talkin about snow and rain, things change....no matter what you do its going to be slippery.

 

The part of his post you bolded is true though , stopping on snow would in fact be easier without the ABS system present on the vehicle

 

Isn't part of keeping the driver in control of the vehicle, also aiding in the stopping of the vehicle? That's what I always thought ABS was also supposed to do, while allowing the driver to possibly steer out of danger.

 

I have always been one to defend the ABS system. Everyone knows this by now. While I do argue that in most cases it will work as designed, and do a great job of it, the Tacoma system is VERY sensitive, and should have the firmware redesigned. I have driven in snow, ice, wet roads, etc in several vehicles with ABS, and the system has performed admirably to give me steering control in a situation where locked up brakes would give me none. No human being is capable of modulating the brakes to the point of lockup as a computer can. That is 100% fact. However again, the Tacoma system is WAY too sensitive in it's present state of programming.