ABS noise

[Aquanaut]

Went to the Berg last weekend, it was raining and the gravel roads were muddy, I slammed on the brakes to prevent us from hitting a huge pothole, the front right wheel felt like it was locking up, a grating sound and feeling came from the front box and a judder was felt on the brake pedal.
I thought something had broken but could not see anything, two days later, the sun was shining and everything had dried up, I tried the brakes again at 20km/h, no noise or judder or grating.
Took it to the dealer and we went for a ride on a gravel road, at 20 km/h I pushed down hard on the brake pedal and the same happened, the workshop manager climbed out to look at the front wheel when I stopped next to him, the wheel wasn't locking, the abs was bitting and letting go, they then tested another hilux 4x4 on the dirt road and it did the same thing.
I phoned my Brother to test his fortuner, and it did the same thing, so the feed back I got from the dealer is that it is normal.

To me that has never happened in any of the vehicles that I have owned that was fitted with ABS. the braking as always been smooth and without sound, why would the toyota be any different, AM I BEING LIED TO??
Basil

[ForYota]

Basil, I am no expert but what I can say is. I even get it on my Bmw, when you brake real hard it "shutters" in front and you can actually feel the brake pedal "shuttering" under your foot, feels a bit scary the first time but thats apparently when your "ABS" kicks in..
Hope this help in a way..

[FJCruiser-ZN]

What you have described is the ABS system functioning. I'm surprised the dealer took another hilux to confirm. I certainly wouldn't go to their workshop in a hurry.

T

[Gideonvanzyl]

In the 6 years I have my Jetta 5, I only managed to feel the ABS kicking in about 3 times and in all three times I had to really stop in a hurry. With normal driving I have never felt the ABS, it is only supposed to kick in with hard braking. You must brake hard on tarmac, then you wont have that gravel noise and ít will also feel different on the steering.

With the hilux, I have never braked so hard that the ABS kicked in so don't know what to expect.

[Blackadder]

Sounds like your ABS is working just fine...

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[pietpetoors]

Basil what ABS does is it release the brake when the wheels starts to slide and apply the brake immediately after that again. It repeats that process many times per second.

When you brake hard with a normal car and the wheels lock up, the right thing to do is release the brake a little bit so the wheels can stop sliding and then apply the brake again. That way you get maximum traction. Now the ABS does exactly that, only much faster than you can do it. The ABS sensor on the wheel sensors when the wheel lock and then it tells the ABS to release the pressure on the brake, and then it re-apply pressure.

I think if you understand how it works it will makes more sense to why you feel this shudder feeling.

[Aquanaut]

Thanks guys, I feel a little better now that I know that I am not alone in this, but my concern was that you don't have to apply any really hard braking on a sandy or gravel road to experience this. I have never felt it on a tar road, only wet and sandy roads travelling at 20km/h.
This surprised me as my previous two vehicles, a ford fiesta and Kia Sportage 4wd never shuddered under extreme braking, and at some time travelling through the transkei, you will at one point have to stand on that brake peddle to avoid animals or taxis, and those two vehicles never locked up or shuddered. That is why I thought this was unusual to feel this on a Hilux 4x4.
But if you guys tell me this is indeed normal, then there is no need to take this further.
Thanks
Basil

[Rianc]

I can confirm the statements of the other guys here. It happens and it is a funny feeling! Even with my 220CDI Merc, which in my opinion higher spec enginering, it happens!
R