No I didnt hit anything...

I've been having a lot of the squeaky brakes problem of late so today I was driving down a steepish hill (no traffic) and I thought I'd try a rapid stop. I've read a lot of the squeaking is down to dust in the gaps in the brake pads and that a few decent (read hard) stops seem to help dislodge it.

Up until now I've never really triggered the ABS (or should I say noticed it). I have triggered the DSC at the front when cornering under accelleration on very smooth tarmac. It makes a juddering noise that's reasonably audible as it tries to regain traction.

So there I was dropping the anchors from 55Ks and just as I'm coming to a stop I hear a loud bang from what sounds like up front (windows open). I'm going WTF?! Moving off again everything seemed to work ok - steering, brakes etc and I'm left puzzling what that noise was, because whatever it was it was fairly loud.

It's been a number of hours now since and I'm struggling to really remember the noise and what it was like. Maybe it was just the DSC kicking in aggressively up front. Maybe it was something else from the houses along the street. Maybe it was my 8 backfiring or something, or maybe it was a stone working loose that had been jammed in me brakes.

All in all I'm at a loss as to what made the noise. From the outside - everything looks ok, but I can't help but wonder what it was.

Does anyone have any ideas, because I sure don't think I was hearing things?

 

More than likely it's the ABS kicking in. You slammed on your brakes. The ABS kicked in to prevent the brakes from locking up and stopping you from skidding. The sound is like a repeating metallic clunk.

 

That's ultimately what I'd like to think it was.... but there's this little voice going "yikes - that was a wierd noise!" It was so loud and abrupt and not the juddering that I've heard from the DSC working up front.

Will be a little tentative next time I'm out.

 

You should go to the same hill and do it again, just to see if you can repeat the noise. I would want to find out right away if it was a problem.

 

Agreed - I'll give it a go, although perhaps not quite as vigorous this time out.

But yes, it's definitely got me wondering and I want to feel confident that the car's not going to do something unexpected when I really need the brakes.

 

I think you should have nothing to worry about. Something very similar happened to me where I stepped on the breakes and I heard a loud thump sound.... Like everyone said here, it's just your ABS. My breaks are still working fine.

 

My 1986 volvo made a LOUD Banging noise when I had to slam on the breaks. needless to say it did not have ABS. There were no side effects either, that i could tell anyway.

 

might have been wheel hopping, bumpy downhill??

 

You hit a kid.

 

You know on the Gumball 3000 video a 360 was doing 100+ hit the brakes and boom this big *** poof of brake dust comes out of the front brakes! everything was ok just some brake dust from the long road trip.

 

Ok - encouraging to hear. Thanks.

 

POtentially as our New Zealand roads are pretty cheap and nasty. But, I don't think that was it. The noise was too loud (almost metallic in note) and too brief.

 

Heh maybe a Robot Metal Kid.

But no, didn't hit anything - the road was clear.

 

Bits falling off?

 

Quite certain it's the ABS. If you have snow, you can try it then without putting too much stress on your car..

 

Fortunately it only snows about once every 10-20 years round here.

 

Had that sound before. A deer ran out in front of me when I went around a curve on a wooded stretch of road (live in the country) and had to slam on the brakes. To me it was more of a loud clunk than a bang. Pretty sure it was just the ABS.

Edit: I've never had to hit the brakes hard since then so I haven't heard that noise again.

 

Cheers BG,

I take it the clunk wasn't the ABS followed by the bang of the deer?!