Brakes failed ?

I let my girlfriend drive my truck today and when she came back she said there is something wrong with the brakes. According to her while approaching a stop sign she pressed the brake and the truck wouldn't stop (slowed but couldn't stop), she released the brake and pressed down on it again and then it stopped. This was on her way to her mother's house. I then got in the truck, drove around the block and everything seems to be OK. After 'interrogating' her this is what I think happened : she was speeding, didn't judge the distance to the stop sign, slammed down on the brakes and the ABS kicked in she panicked because she's not familiar with ABS and thought the brakes weren't holding. What do you guys think, I'm really not in the mood to spend a whole day down at the garage tomorrow.

 

Yea i think that was ABS, my mother one time got freaked out with her car, she even got the brakes checked....

 

There's nothing wrong with your brakes. She hit the brakes too hard locking up the wheels, and the ABS kicked in.

Technically - you're NOT supposed to take your foot off the brakes when the ABS is working or else that defeats the purpose of the system.

It's totally normal for it to pulsate on hard braking. It'll pulsate to prevent the wheels from locking up and skidding.

 

Yeah! ! What Janster said

 

Like everyone else I'm guessing it was the ABS kicking in. On Friday I was kind of on autopilot when I noticed the light I was about to go thru was yellow turning red. It was only the second time the ABS has kicked in for me on dry pavement and it was a very strange feeling.

INHO this is another reason to have a scangauge. It will show the maximum and average speeds driven AND the maximum RPMs for the day. With that information you can get a pretty good indication if the truck was being driven like a bat out of hell.

 

^That's it. I'm DEFINITELY buying a Scangauge now. I don't care if the wife thinks I'm spying on her or not but I didn't realize it had that kind of functionality.

 

Yeah then when she gets in an accident and the ECU throws a code from impact you can look at the throttle position and tell whether she was speeding up or slowing down just before she wrecks your truck.


Oh yeah.. origional topic... one thought she might have experienced is that the truck didn't gear down (if an automatic) and so the pressure she put on the pedal wasn't enough. Hard stop but not hard enough to kick off brake assist or ABS could be what she experienced. I have at least once where I was on "autopilot" as well. Felt for sure I wasn't going to stop fast enough. I didn't release and reapply the brake but I did quickly downshift my automatic which made a difference. Oh and the only time this happened to me was with the A/C on. It was totally my bad though and wasn't any indication of malfunction in the system.

 

i dont understand why the ABS feels so bad on these trucks. abs has never felt like this on older cars i've driven with it. event he camry i tried to lock up felt fine, but the truck freaks out when it does it...

 

exactly! i seem to have my abs kick on almost every time i drive mine. little cracks in the road, a small twig in my path, almost anything will make it kick on. I HATE THE ABS ON THESE TRUCKS! In the winter its almost like i dont have brakes when i get into ice and snow, not to mention when im off road on gravel forest service roads and such. It just wont stop when the ABS kicks on. Actually, one time i had to jam on my e-brake to stop my truck in the snow because the abs kept turning my brakes OFF! I woulda rear ended my buddy that stopped while we were out snow wheelin' if i didnt think that fast, and i was only going about 25-30 mph following him at a distance. Oh, he was in a '95 Toyota pickup and NEVER had his kick on! Man the ABS is intrusive in these trucks! Sorry, just a little tangent. guess you can tell what one of the biggest issues i have with my truck is now!

 

^Are you sure there isn't just a problem with your ABS? I mean, mine have never come on since the day I bought it and, considering how crappy people drive around here (tourists especially), I would think it would've at some point.

 

+1 or it's "driver error" and braking too hard for the conditions... that or crappy tires. I've never had mine kick on in normal driving situations either. I think I've only had it kick on once in the snow a well.

 

hey now..... dont be calling me a bad driver. lol. I might be a "spirited" driver, but my ABS just does this all the time. My Chevy that i had previously almost never kicked on over the 2 1/2 years that i had it, and i put the tires and wheels from it onto my Taco so i dont think its really me, or the tires. Of all the other trucks and cars i've driven i've never had an issue either, so i really dont think its me...... I dont think that i changed my driving style between the change either. Its really only a problem off road (ever try stopping quickly in sand? The ABS sucks off-road.) and in winter conditions. On dry pavement its usually fine.

 

^Well that's what I mean, there may be a problem with the ABS, not you.

 

Hmm.. didn't notice the earlier comment about offroad however I can agree with that one. Offroad ABS isn't very good.. or is it. ABS is designed to keep the tires rolling to prevent skidding and maintain control. So it's doing what it was designed for.

When I offroad I put it in 4WD. The turns off all the VSC and stuff. Haven't experienced that offroad since I'm always in 4WD.

 

both toyota trucks I've owned ('01 tacoma and '06 tundra) had awful ABS brakes. I was never in a situation where I felt unsafe, but like others said, it just wasn't as smooth or predictable as in comparable toyotas or hondas I've driven.

I couldn't help but wonder if the rear brake proportioner had something to do with it? maybe IT isn't calibrated perfectly?

 

i have only had mine kick on twice, both times it was un needed. and both times it felt like the truck was falling apart, sounded like a freight train on rails, and felt like the brake pedal was trying to eat my foot.

 

If you haven't, it's a good idea (when safe) to try a few full, hard ABS stops to get a feel for how they work on any vehicle you drive.