ABS on this truck is dangerous...

You don't understand a damn thing Skippy. There are quite a few people who report the exact same problem with the system. The dealership says it's normal. As someone else said, it may be normal because it seems to be the way the system is, but it shouldn't be.

It has nothing to do with going too fast. You'll notice if you actually learn to read that I and everyone else who had this issue said it's not when going fast that it's a problem, it's when going slow.

 

happened to me on a slick dirt road at my farm, i was coming up to a sharp right turn so i wasn't going fast to begin with, i pressed the brakes slightly and turned the wheel at which point the brakes locked and caused me to slide STRAIGHT off the road. saying that they help to keep you in control for turns and such is bull, my silverado would engage the ABS if i was going to fast but under about 10 mph it would lay off, my tacoma does it at 5ish mph

 

I joined this forum just for this reason, to see if anybody else was having problmes with the braking system on their Tacoma. I have a 07 Double Cab Sport 4x4 and it scares the hell out of me when I am in the situation where I have to drive off of the single lane road I live on and onto the shoulder of the road. I press on the brake and the Anit-Lock brake starts to hum and my truck doesn't slow down. I can't stop. Just lucky I have been able to steer out of danger. I know my luck is going to run out someday. I took my truck to a local Toyota Dealer this past week and they checked it out but found no fault in the truck's braking system. They charged me a diagnostic fee to find nothing. THIS TRUCK IS DANGEROUS!!!! I will not let other people in my family drive this truck anymore until I have resolution on this problem. I purchased this truck new back in Dec 06 and I am seriously thinking of selling it. I have driven many cars and trucks in my life and this one just is scary and Dangerous when you are put in the situation that you really need the brakes to work. The guy that says his Anti Lock brakes work maybe his has truck has a brake system that works. Mine does not!!! It appears other people are having the same problem with there Tacomas. Before I took my truck to the Toyota Dealer I really thought that they would tell me there is nothing wrong with the braking system. There is definitely a problem with the braking system in my truck.
I just heard on the radio this morning about the Toyota Prius's brake problem. Very similar problem when the car is on a non paved road or a slippery surface. The Anti-Lock Brakes do not stop the car!!!!
How do we get this message to Toyota? I know they have a lot to deal with right now but the Tacoma Owners need to get this message to Toyota before someone gets hurt or killed. Again, THIS TRUCK IS DANGEROUS!!!!
I look forward to hearing from someone on this issue.

 

ABs kicks in when there is little/no traction.......ABS does not make traction
v-trac trac and lockers do not make traction.... they manage traction
at 20s & BFG stock tires ARE NOT snow tires...nor are a MT?AT tire unless it says so.
once snow packs , or its ice and you have no snow/ice tire....YOU and ABS become fail at some point
So, only a tire can MAKE or achieve traction specific to its design.

I drove my stock at20s on ice and had decent traction for a stock tire, its ABS worked fine
I run a winter set to be safer,
Tacoma ABS is better than the good one on a Ford and a good ABS on a chevy i had.

Ask this ' what can i do better"...." did I really slow down enough"

 

I agree 100% with rmiller001!

This is a serious issue and I fear driving in snow now. Toyota tested my truck and said it was fine even after I explained how bad the abs is when driving in snow and at low speeds. They actually told me I could take out the fuse for the abs. If there is no problem why would they suggest that? If I do take out the fuse is it ok? Does it affect anything else in the truck?

 

ABS = Another Bad System. My friends pull their fuse when they froad.

 

Does anyone know which fuse is the abs fuse on 06 tacoma I want the abs off.

 

Nevermind, I found it. Red 50 A fuse. Only thing is abs light displays but doesnt blink I am ok with that. I may have saved a life by taking that out.

 

i can't think of any manufacture that would make a system to just take off all by it's self. you design a system to engauge or not to engauge, set by sensors or software and or both. use your back up. i think the E-brake is still mechanical. i guess we will just have to grab our chute and jump untill they put us an ejection set in the fly-by-wires. USE THE FORCE LUKE!!!!

 

Sometimes, people who think they're having problems with their ABS are actually having problems with their tires. The more adhesion a tire has, the longer it takes for ABS to kick in. For example, I'm running four new snow tires on mine, and I haven't heard the ABS come on all winter.

 

Yup. ABS stops you straight and safe..... not neccessarily shorter. If you aren't stopping its you or the tires.

Again if someone isnt hearing it .... ABS stops you straighter n safer not neccessarily shorter, you may not like that, but its what it is.

if a tire locks up, abs kicks in, no traction abs wont brake like in ice.....get the RIGHT tires.

 

OK, First, I skipped about 100 replies in the middle of this thread. Sorry if someone's already covered this but:

This effect, of the brakes "releasing" when traction is momentarily lost at very slow speeds, is the same issue that the Prius is having. It also scared the crap out of people who bought the 800cc BMW motorcycles with ABS, when they started doing the same thing.

It seems an issue with the "cycle time" of the system. Under certain conditions the cycle time--the interval at which ABS pumps the brake--gets longer and longer. At some point it gets so long that they seem to just fail completely.

I don't know if the causes in thse cases are the same. They say the Prius has a programming issue that can be corrected by reprogramming. AFAIK, the BMW bikes were not repaired at all, though the problem seemed to be rectified with the subsequent model year's production.

Personally, my experience with ABS systems is this: They can be erratic, and it pays to actually force them to activate at regular intervals to "exercise" the system. It's electro-mechanical, and it can eventually get sticky, and the stickiness first becomes evident in situations where the brakes are just barely being used.

 

I have dedicated ice radials with studs (I actually do). I see an intersection with a stop sign approaching and begin to slow from 40 mph (this have actually happened). 20 feet before I come to the stop sign I am now doing between 5-10 mph when my front left tire hits a patch of ice (maybe 2-3 feet in diameter) - the other three tires are on dry pavement. This cycles the abs because 25% of my tires are beginning to lock under moderate and controlled braking. The ABS cycling causes me to continue past the stop sign and not stop until all four tires are on dry pavement which by this point is in the middle of the intersection. While trying to stop I push the pedal completly to the floor as are the instructions when the ABS cuts in.

If the tires are correct, speed was correct, braking application was correct, why did the truck blow the intersection when three of its tires were on dry pavement?

 

i HATE the abs system on our trucks!!

pulling the abs fuse was the best "mod" i've done to date. after connecting with another vehicle because of the abs disabling my brakes when i needed them most, i pulled the fuse immediately. way better winter performance now; couldn't be happier with the way it handles on snow and ice.

 

The primary job of ABS is to preserve some maneuverability during a panic stop. It's a compromise, like ALL engineering decisions are, that gives you the most safety in the widest variety of situations. It is not absolutely 'better' all the time. It tends to produce shorter stopping distances on dry or slippery pavement, and longer stopping distances on soft surfaces like sand or snow.

Am confused a bit by your story in that my truck would not do what your truck did, cycling all four brakes. The ABS acts only on the wheel that's locking up. Stopping distance is compromised only by the loss of full braking on that wheel, yes, but it would be compromised even more if that wheel was fully locked.

BTW, studded tires are not your friend for dry pavement braking. It's possible that all four wheels were in an impending lockup situation and that's why the ABS acted on all four.

 

My advice to ANYBODY who wants to disable their ABS (and I am not advising you to disable it) is pull the fuse, short it across the battery so it blows, then replace the blown fuse.

Now if you do have an accident it will not be obvious that you've disabled the ABS.

Remember that insurance companies have lower rates for ABS equiped vehicles, and if they find you've disabled the ABS they could possibly void your whole policy and leave you hung out to dry.

 

If everyone is so concerned about the abs, I suggested you write to your congressman or senator and tell them to investigate the tacoma too. With all the hub bub happening anything said will be looked into.

 

Thank you! This is the exact point I was trying to make. Some individuals however are so blind and thick headed that they cannot admit that the truck does this because it the system was designed that way. Studies have been performed and this EXACT point has been proven. Therefore when I agree with, or post a legitimate experience that I have encountered, I don't appreciate someone regurgitating the response that its either driver error or inappropriate tires - when they are too closed minded to open their eyes and be objective.

 

I agree with you. I have pulled my fuse and we have a pretty good snow storm coming tomorrow. I will be testing the brakes knowing how it acted before pulling the fuse. Also to all the people trying to explain how abs works, stop. We know how its supposed to work. If you have read these threads it is not about speed, tires, or driving like an idiot in bad weather.

I will give you an example. My one car garage I put down an epoxy seal. It has sand that you can add with it when putting it down to help with grip, but as it turned out didnt help much. Anyway when the floor is wet it is like walking on ice. One day when pulling in the garage in a rain storm, waiting for the automatic door to open, I pulled in and the abs kicked in as soon as I hit the brakes. The truck did not stop and I hit the back of the garage, not bad but I hit it. That was when I went to Toyota who like I had said told me it was fine, normal.

Please stop with the abs braking lessons.

 

Thank you all for commenting on this subject of the ABS System. I am kind of miffed or amused that some of the Tacoma Trucks exhibit this problem and others do not. It seems to me that 2005-2007 truck owners are having this problem where the 2008-2010 Models are not. Some of the threads I can’t tell which year truck they have. I just know that my 2007 exhibits this problem.

I recently moved from Phoenix AZ to a rural area north of Sacramento CA. City driving in Phoenix I never experienced this problem. It was not until I drove on small country roads and had to pull over for oncoming traffic to pass did I really notice this problem. On dry or wet pavement I had not experienced this problem at all.

There was one time however it did happen in our local city where I was driving parallel with a railroad track and I don't remember if I had two wheels on the track or one. But again I could not stop and came very close to rear ending the car in front of me.

Yesterday I wrote a letter to Toyota explaining the problem and also told them about the other Tacoma owners from this forum that is having this problem. I also noted that the Prius Brake problem sounds very similar to the Tacoma ABS problem we have experienced.
Not only did I write to Toyota I also wrote to DOT NHTSA, (safercars.gov) and explained the problem with the Tacoma ABS.

I would encourage any of you that have the same problem to do the same. Please explain your problem to both Toyota and DOT NHTSA. You can do it online.

I just want to get my truck fixed otherwise I am going to get rid of it. Getting rid of it will not help you or the next owner of my truck. If the next owner of my truck bought it not knowing what I know they could injure themselves or someone else.

Some of you have written about disabling the ABS System. I am not so sure that this is the best corrective action for this problem. One of the threads I had seen said it could be just a software modification that could fix this problem. Maybe the Software Engineer on the Prius was the same guy that wrote the SW for the Tacoma. Maybe the software for the Prius ABS System was copy and pasted into several different models of Toyota’s to also include the Tacoma.

Whatever it is Toyota needs to address the issue. Whether it is pressure from the Toyota Owners or from the US Govt? I would prefer the Toyota Owners just because our Govt. has enough to deal with and they are too much into our life already. Anyway that is a different topic.

If you have this problem *** Please do write Toyota.com and the NHTSA at safercars.gov