Brakes Malfunctioning - Turning off.

Crap guys. Crashed my truck tonight. Just got home from a month and a half long trip and was missing the truck so went for a drive. It was wet but i have driven around these trails loads of times so didn't think anything of it. Made it halfway down this little trail just fine crawling in 4LO and L using brakes to keep a little slower. All of a sudden halfway down my brakes totally freakin turned off! Floored brake for like 1sec and nothing. Started speeding up way faster so i kicked down e brake... NOTHING. Then i just tried to steer it away from this wall and ended up launching off the wall on my drivers side wheel at about 25mph. Side airbags blew cracked me in the head and almost rolled the truck. It was for sure on two wheels. Just barely made it. I thought my front bumper was gonna be destroyed but no damage to plastic. My driver side wheel though is another story. I can tell its off by like 2 inches or so. Tomorrow gonna take it down to Toyota and hopefully they fix it. Stupid for a truck with 3200 miles on it to have a failure like that.


Anybody have any experience with getting this fixed.
I know that a lot of guys are having this problem with ice but does toyota fix the damages caused by it? I have the police report saying it was a vehicle malfunction so hopefully they will fix it.
Anybody have any ideas?

 

Did your truck sit for a month and a half without being driven?

 

no my dad keeps it going once or twice a week.

 

That was a plot twist for sure. I thought maybe your ABS had engaged before I read, glad you are okay!!! I hope they resolve that and don't throw it on you.

 

Now that i think about it why did ABS even activate. It was in 4LO isn't abs turned off in 4LO?

 

Insurance???

 

That's the first I've heard of this particular quirk.

The ebrake is mechanical. It may not work for some reason, but it can't 'turn off'.

Seems more likely the rears were locked up and you were sliding down a wet surface?

As far as Toyota fixing the body damage. Well, let us know how that works out for you.

I can't recall anyone even getting anything done about this 'no brake' or the 'ABS is dangerous' complaint.

 

You said you were on a trail. I'm assuming there was mud and you slide with the wheels all locked.

 

Rears could have locked up and slid from the ebrake. But before that definitely was not sliding. My truck was absolutely 100% just rolling along. And when i kicked the ebrake it felt the same no different. It still felt like it was just rolling.

 

No brakes at all, or were you getting the infamous ABS acceleration?

 

http://autorepair.about.com/od/glossary/a/def_ABS.htm

Notice step 13.

It seems all folks with this issue cite very low speeds. So step 13 would seem to make a case for no ABS, thus sliding, as everyone describes slick conditions?

Also wondering if the conditions (slush, ice, mud) in these variety of cases might be inhibiting the ABS sensors? If it can't 'read', it can't work.

To the OP. Not trying to dispute your description of events. Just trying to understand, how do you 'know' it was rolling? Obviously I don't think you saw the tires turning.

Traction-less sliding feels just like rolling, especially when there is an element of panic involved. And your 'no difference' with the ebrake is actually supportive of the sliding (wheels all locked) concept.

I've experienced (pre and post the advent of ABS both) these sensations, both on driver training courses (flooded skidpads), real roads (high oil float after a long dry spell, then rain) and unfortunately in on interstate accident where I wound up rolling a new IH Travel-All. Brakes fully locked, didn't matter, just kept zipping along.

I've been poking around at this in this thread and one of the others. Mostly because I'm trying to understand what's at play here. When we have extended dry spells, followed by frog stranglers, we get a lot of oil float on the roads, which become like greased cookie sheets. I just don't want to get caught with the issue myself!

 

Yeah , I'm pretty certain the only factory setting that turns off ABS is having the locker engaged

 

Sounds like your master cylinder gave up. I had that happen on a work truck years ago and it was definitely a butt puckering moment. I would guess with the e-brake that the rear just locked up or it was very far out of adjustment.

 

On a 1 y.o. truck with 3,200 miles, I certainly hope not.

But you are correct. That is a spooky feeling. BTDT.

 

I understand it not making sense. It really doesn't make sense to me. What i do know is that I have played around in mud before and know what it feels like to slide around playing. It sure didnt feel like any other situation other than just fully releasing the brake pedal. Felt like there was absolutely no brakes. I had full steering control so it didn't feel at all like sliding. So at low speeds ABS shouldn't happen.

 

Tow truck driver said truck might be totaled idk we will see. He said if frame is bent its totaled. Kinda don't know how i feel about that. Feels like if this truck has a malfunction maybe better to get a new one. Im torn oh well. Just gotta see what the shop says.

 

You had 'some' steering control. Steering control (or it's lack of) is different when skidding (think no ABS, dry pavement, grippy tires) or sliding (think the whole vehicle, little to no grip at play)

When you are skidding as defined above, you have no real steering control. The grip of a tire can't be more than 100%, and if they are locked and skidding, you can't steer. It's one reason why ABS makes vehicles safer. Avoid the skid and you have some % of grip left for steering input.

Sliding is a bit different. Since there is almost no grip, at least aiming the tires a different direction will create some response, although it won't be particularly good.

Well, according to the linked article. I can't speak to the fact that it's accurate, accurate for all vehicles, or even accurate for the Tacoma in particular.

However, I'd assume it's probably fairly accurate, as the concept and applications of ABS have been around a long time, appearing as an option on some US Marquees as long ago as the early 70's. And while manufacturers techniques may vary, it would seem reasonable that the underlying operating principles were pretty common.

Please keep us up on the investigative findings.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your accident - from what you describe, it sounds like the brake system genuinely had a fault or failure.

Not sure if you have access to techstream and a cable, you could pull event data leading up to when airbag deployed. It would help give you a more solid case to describe to your insurance company. These insurance companies are going to be the only ones able to get Toyota to do something about this abs.

Even though the police report contained something to the effect of vehicle malfunction, that could be interpretted as the owner not maintaining the vehicle, hence contributing to the accident. Perhaps you could get the police to amend the report so that it reads that a 'manufacturer latent defect' potentially caused the accident?

 

Well he has a one year old truck with only 3200 miles on it, so it'd be pretty bold for the insurance company to say it wasn't properly maintained

 

Welcome to the club.
Sliding uncontrollably down the hill...... Sounds like ABS is functioning as designed.....

But seriously its highly unlikely Toyota will do anything, NHTSA considers ABS to be functional even if interferes with stopping. Its designed to not allow wheel lock up and it did prevent wheels from locking.
The only way to fix this problem is to write to government representatives to remove ABS, make it optional or provide disable switch.