mdubster

Hey there,

new here but already finding your forum informative and helpful.

I bought my fully loaded 3 sedan about 7 months ago...all has been well until it snowed a few days ago. My previous car was a 90 prelude so i've never had ABS...

Since it started snowing here i find that when my ABS kicks in i hear a loud grinding noise and my brake pedal pushes up against the force of my foot on the brake pedal and vibrates. I phoned my local Mazda dealer and they've told me this is normal...somehow i would imagine ABS being a bit quieter tho...doesnt seem likely that ABS would make such a grinding noise!

Has anyone else experienced this or heard of anything like this?

Thanks in advance!

Specture

if i hit my brakes really hard i get a grinding noise and feeling, but i never have thought it to be normal

mdubster

yeah it doesnt sound right, to me it sounded like the service dept didnt want to deal with it and passed it off as being normal.

doesnt sound normal to me! It feels like if i keep the pedal depressed eventually my axle or something will fall off

DaleK

What you describe sounds pretty normal for most abs systems (at least in less expensive cars like ours). Keep the pedal down when the abs kicks in, and the pedal should pulsate, and you should be able to tell that the wheels are locking and unlocking as the abs does its thing. If you are going fast enough that the abs kicks in for the conditions, its normally better to stay on the brake and let the abs work rather than release and threshold brake like you are probably used to.

Jeffro426

Thats what ABS sounds like...kinda like your grinding gears and youll feel it in your pedal....comepletly normal!!

edge_GT

Is the noise happening when you apply the brakes on compacted snow?
I ask because this is happening to me too but the noise is coming from tires locking and unlocking on the hard compacted snow thus "sliding" for milliseconds and creating the loud grinding noise. If you tried applying the brakes on a non-abs car the wheels would lock and the same grinding noise would be heard continuously as opposed to intermittently on an ABS car.

mdubster

well it is a continuous sound...and it does happen on compacted snow...pretty much any slippery surface (i'm assuming it would happen on a very wet surface as well but hope not to find out).

The reason why i raise this concern is that my 90 prelude which didnt have ABS would slide in the snow and not once did it make the grinding noise. Grinding noise is one thing but the thing that really concerns me is teh rough ride, actually feeling my brake pedal grind and 'push back' when my abs kick in...

Jeffro426

Yes, thats exactly what ABS sounds and feels like...grinding noises, akward pedal pressures(almost like its pushing back), etc...to think of it one way its turning your brakes on and off really fast alowing it to slow the car, but not skid. Its not really a grinding noise, its valves opening and closing rapidly...not your tires make the noise! If your that worried about it, take it back to the dealership, but ill put money on it that they will say your paranoid! Since you havent owned a car with ABS, take a look at this article...it will put things a little more in perspective...

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/anti-lock-brake.htm