Hi guys,

Driving down the snowy A40 today back to london, and came across some instances where i had to brake in the snowy road. when i press the brake the pedal only went down a small amount and heard a very loud banging nose, its abit like a rock was stuck between the pads and the disk or something and i could feel it through the pedal. very strange and hard to explain. but on a dry or wet road it dosent produce the issue. seems to only be when the tyres are locking. is that an ABS issue? i pretty much had 0-5% brake force and nearly hit the car in front :S luckily managed to swerve onto another lane and survived today.

Also is the ABS light supposed to flash intermittently when its working the brakes? i didnt get no ABS light come up when applying the brakes hard. i also noticed some rust around the edges of the brakes when i went in to replace my front worn tyres for used winters.

what your experiencing is the ABS kicking in, all normal.

no the ABS light will not flash or illuminate unless there is a fault

Oh ok... thanks. the abs system pretty much sucks then on the focus lol.. ill be more careful next time and use the brakes like abs dosent exist.

Thanks for the help :)

Oh ok... thanks. the abs system pretty much sucks then on the focus lol.. ill be more careful next time and use the brakes like abs dosent exist.

Thanks for the help :)

remember with abs you need to apply constant pressure to allow it to do its job.. it does feel quite alarming under your foot though.

remember with abs you need to apply constant pressure to allow it to do its job.. it does feel quite alarming under your foot though.

I see. i think ill test out the ABS tomorrow morning at an empty car park and try to understand how this thing works

I see. i think ill test out the ABS tomorrow morning at an empty car park and try to understand how this thing works

sounds like a good idea

It's the same on all cars with ABS, it's doing what it's supposed to do, pumping the brakes off and on rapidly to give you a shorter braking distance without the wheels locking up and allowing you still steer the car under control.

as soon as your brakes lock (pedal goes hard), you just go into skid mode, i always thought that in snow you pump ur brakes gently and avoid at all cost locking up, use the gears and engine braking as much as possible......

I see. i think ill test out the ABS tomorrow morning at an empty car park and try to understand how this thing works

you will just skid n slide on snow.......

yeah i know that i should be slowly pumping the brakes but just didn't understand why the brakes were making such a havoc noise even at slow speeds. i thought either something was broken or snow/ice was somehow jammed inside the braking system :P

Thanks for the reply guys

Having had a vw passat in the past the abs is the same on that noisy just the way it is light will only flash if theres a problem with the abs in ice and snow it doesnt really help other than to keep you straight it still skids