This afternoon my antilock brakes locked up when I had to make a sudden stop as I heard the tires squeeling on the pavement from the lock up. Plus it handled like it was locked up and in a slide. I'll admit I was speeding at the time and still increasing speed but the light I was aproaching tuned yellow and I was too far back to make it before it turned red but close enough that the only way to stop was to slam on the brakes. No warning lights or anything but I sure am pissed the antilock function didn't work like it is supose too. Had to drop from 70mph in a 45 zone in 150ft max by the time I was stopped my driversdoor was at the crosswalk of the intersection.

 

OK - first of all STOP speeding, as a firefighter i'm tired of scraping idiots off the black top

the anti lock sounds like it worked- anti lock detects the wheels stopping and releases the brake when the wheel starts turn again the sensor detects this and applies pressure again so as not to deminnish braking power this cycle repeats it's self until you stop or resease the brakes

what you may have heard was the tires sqealing because this happens as pressure is aplied and released over and over

 

Wow what are the odds. The same thing happened to me today. I've stopped short before but never felt like this. I was very surprised about the squealing and even more surprised when I looked in my rearview and saw tread.

Weird.

 

Well I still think they locked up I'm going on how the anitloc brakes on my 94 Mustang GT. It was January of 96 a snow storm hit northwest TN where I was living at the time I went to work that morning when it started snowing. By the timeI got off work 12 hours latter there was 4 inches on the ground and being TN the roads were bad. The anitlck brakes worked well on that in in those conditions and the brakes pedal was pulsating when he anitloc kicked in. The other day the brake pedal in my truck never pulsated so thats why I figure they locked up. I know my 96 GT also pusated with the antilocs in snow. Maybe the trucks are differnt as I don't remember if my 2000 ever pulsated with the anitlocs.

 

If you do have an ABS problem it should throw a code of some sort and then it will turn your ABS off. Maybe your ABS bulb is burnt and there is a stored code?

Even with ABS on dry pavement you will get the tires to squeal. What you can do is go to a parking lot go 30-40 mph and mash on the brake pedal and see if your ABS is working. Since things like this happen so fast you just may not have noticed the pedal pulsating since it happened so quickly.

If its snowy and slippery it’s a lot more noticeable when the pedal is pulsating since the wheels lock up so easily and the car is sliding much longer.

 

I just came out of a Chevy Trailblazer into the F150 about 2 weeks ago. This is exactly the same feeling I had. I've had plenty of close calls with the Trailblazer where I would slam on the breaks and physically "feel" the pulsations of the ABS locking and unlocking as I held my foot down. I also never burned rubber while doing so.

Meanwhile, the other day, I did not feel any pulses and it seemed to straight up lock up, and I had a huge set of tread marks on the pavement. The only explanation I could think of is perhaps the design of the breaking system on the F150 is built so that it does not transmit the pulses of the ABS into the brake pedal. Even that though doesn't explain the tread marks and the tires screeching or the feeling that I was about to enter a slide.

I'm taking my truck in for the break booster recall this week as I just found out it was still an open recall on my truck. I will be sure to ask the service tech about this while there.

 

My 2000 F150 will lock them up on dry pavement, but they seem to work fine on wet pavement.

 

Thats probable what happened to me as it was dry pavemt when they locked up on me.

 

I have a 2000f150 and I cant get the brakes to lock up for *****!!! When I hit the brakes in snow or mud I can FEEL the brake pulsate like you guys say and they dont want to lock up! My brakes feel really soft though I should probably replace them they are starting to squeel every once and a while. But when the brakepedal pulsates it makes a funny noise like a loud fuel pump...

 

You could run a test like I did once to see if the anti lock works,
I drove with one set of wheels in gravel or just of the side of the road with the other set on asphalt hit the brakes if they work the car stays strait. If the wheels lock up in the gravel something might be wrong.
Worked for me flawlessly