ABS Locking?

Saturday morn. going to work in the midst of a fast 5 inch snow blizzard, my VX handled like a dream, passing big rigs on the expy doin bout 55mph w/out plowed roads. No problem until I reached the off ramp and applied the breaks. I was down to about 25 mph when if felt like my breakes locked. I started to skid( A STRAIGHT SKID ), but by break pedal felt like it stopped at half way. It felt just like when its depressed when the engine is off. Idid feel a great pulsing sensation when pressing down, but still only until I came to FULL STOP did I get control of the breaks again. So there I am just 3 blocks from work on the unplowed main road,doin no more than 20 mph when I was about to turn rt into my driveway,when it happened again. I couldnt even turn into the driveway because the breaks went halfway down , pulsated & caused me to go into a straight skid. In the uncleared parking lot on the snow it kept happening, but when it rained a few hrs later and all turned to ice , I did some hard driving in the empty lot and had no problems breaking . I had it to near 45 mph & hit the breaks hard and it was beautiful, Stopprd on a dime. But when I drove very slow on some patches of snow it all happened again, What can this be?

I think I remember some old posts about snow becoming packed in or on the abs sensors and causing intermittant problems.

thx SGT. I will look into these posts

Biggest thing I learned when driving in the snow with my VX, was when trying to stop with the ABS, was to shift into neutral. The torque on the VX without disengaging the engine, would move you further than you needed to go. By shifting into N you are able to stop the VX much easier.
Just my 2 cents.

good point jeffkics...

Sheik, I have experienced the same problem with the ABS. It almost put me into a telephone pole last week and almost into someone's yard yesterday. :mad:

I have been pulling my ABS fuse when the weather gets snowy. It has worked well for me, but I don't it's a permanent solution. (Although I saw another member of the board posted a how-to install an ABS disconnect switch).

Just letting you know that you're not alone.

Joe

When you get that pulsating in the pedal the ABS is working. If you only depress the brake halfway then your only using half your brakes. Yes it feels like it only wants to go halfway but if you really press on it hard you will stop quicker. However once you get used to when the ABS will kick in you can brake better by using your brakes up 'till the ABS would kick in. If the ABS kicks in you should be able to steer still (somewhat) It helps if your about to rear end someone and your trying to brake but the last second you can still hit the ditch/berm while you are braking instead of skidding straight into the car in front of you.

good advice & thanks, but there still must be some sort of problem here because it only happens to less than a handfull of us VX'ers.If it doesnt happen to other VX'ers, then why is it happining to just a few? Maybe something need be looked into, for this is a BIG & DANGEROUS problem. BTW Ive been driving on snow for many years & with abs in my BMW.No problems like these.

Havn't had this problem, but I was thinking maybe its the difference in a 4wd ABS and a 2wd ABS?? I know its my first 4wd and I'm having to get used to the way it drives (ie: punching the gas into a sharp curve can somtimes lead to over steering/turning with all 4 tires pushing/pulling me through the corner).

I've had the same braking issue. I think we're only hearing about it from those of us who live in the snow-belt. We got about a foot of snow last week and I ran into the same situation. It only seemed to happen at street speeds, not highway. Neutral is the best solution I found. Before the VX I always used neutral in the winter, so it was kind of habit anyways. Snowboarding is a blast, just not in my car.

AlaskaVX, thanks for the explanation, but I really do think this is an isolated problem for some of us... not normal ABS operation. I have pushed on my pedal as hard as I could (and I'm no frail little thing :D ) and I still wasn't stopping.

I will definitely use the Neutral method of stopping when necessary.

I am going to have my 30,000 miles service down after the holiday and I definitely am going to have them check the brake system and ABD thoroughly.
I think that it's about time for a brake change (pads) and that may have some influence on my problem.

Until then, I will drive in snowy conditions with the ABS fuse in my pocket. ;)

Joe