Hi, I'm new here and new to Ford. I just got a new '07 SCab XLT a couple weeks ago and I'm having some trouble with the brakes on it.

Sometimes when I'm just normally applying the brakes, or if I stop in a hurry, my truck will slide a little bit before stopping even though I have the pedal pushed to the floor. It stops eventually, but I almost rear-ended someone the other night after I gave myself PLENTY of time before hand. After it happened the first time, I tested them at night on an empty street and applied my brakes hard from 35 MPH but they worked just fine. This problem has happened on level roads, an incline, wet and dry conditions; sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.

Does anybody have a clue what's going on? I don't have time to go to the dealership this week, but I'm just wondering if anybody has any input.

Thanks in advance, and I hope to talk to you all.

 

What do you mean by "slide"??? Are you locking the wheels? Or is your ABS kicking in? (are you confident you know what ABS feels like?) Or are you simply not building enough pressure to slow the truck?

If your wheels are locking up (does your back end kick out at all?) then you have a problem with your ABS and need to take it in.

One problem you'll see at the dealer... if they can't replicate the problem they can't fix it. (unless your truck has problem codes stored) So be prepared to make them send a tech out with you to do a bunch of driving until it happens again.

 

I guess by "sliding" I mean that the truck doesn't stop immediately; I'll have the brake pedal to the floor but the truck doesn't stop, it keeps going forward a little bit (feels like it sort of slides forward a little bit) and then it'll stop completely. Is that what the ABS does? I'm pretty sure my wheels aren't locking up since the back-end is fine. I guess I'm not too sure what the ABS feels like when it's activated.

 

is the brake pedal firm? Like you can push really hard and it doesn't keep moving?

If your ABS is activating, you should feel a slight pulse in the brake pedal. But if you don't notice the pulse, it will feel like you're sliding. The first time you have it happen it usually scares the crap out of you because it feels almost like your brakes are failing when the ABS kicks in.

You say this has happened in dry conditions... was that a really hard stop? If the road is dry it takes a very aggressive stop to get the ABS to kick in

 

No, the dry road stop was just a normal stop; I was just coming up to a stoplight and it happened, which is why I got worried. I don't remember if the pedal was pulsing or not but even so, the ABS shouldn't activate if I'm normally breaking, right? It actually hasn't happened for a little while now, but I'm just worried every time I drive that it will.

 

No, generally you don't get ABS on dry roads, you'd have to really be braking hard to kick it in... unless maybe there was some loose gravel or something on the pavement? Or a big pothole... sometimes potholes will activate ABS as the wheel locks up as it goes airborne over the pothole.

its hard to tell what the issue is... but the good news is that your truck should still be under warranty, right??? I'd call the dealer and have them check it out ASAP. Hopefully they can find an ABS sensor that has gone bad or something simple like that and it will be a free & easy fix

 

Well, I took it into the dealership and they said it might be an overactive ABS, but they guy took it out for a drive for about 10 mins and we couldn't get it to do it. He did do an ABS stop on some gravel so that I could feel what it's like, but what I was experiencing didn't feel like that; the ABS stop felt normal because the truck actually stopped, but what I experienced was the truck lurching forward and a metal grinding noise when I had the pedal to the floor.

One thing, though, it seems like it's holding RPM's when it happens, because there's a slight vibration and as soon as I let go of the pedal, the truck goes and just shoots off.

I told ALL of this to the guy, but since the brakes worked fine for him, he didn't seem too concerned and told me to bring it back in if I have anymore problems with it. My new problem is that I'm worried sh*tless to drive the thing out of fear I'll rear-end sombody.

 

ya... thats the crappy thing about intermitent problems. If they don't have it happen in the little bit they drive it, they can't fix it.

Try to watch when it happens... always in the morning when the truck is still cold? Or only when the truck is hot? If you can nail down when it is most likely to happen you might have better luck getting it to happen when the ford guy is with you.

Good luck!