Good afternoon everyone,
A bit of background information: a little under a year ago, my mechanic told me that the ABS tone ring on my 04 Escape XLT was broken. He told me that the broken part really presented no safety risk, and since I didn’t have the money to fork over to replace the tone ring AND the half-shaft, I decided to hold off. I more or less forgot all about the issue until this morning. I was driving to work, and slowing down from ~40mph to merge into the right turn lane and turn, when I started to feel a rumbling feeling in the brake pedal. I guess the only way I could describe the feeling was that it felt like the ABS was kicking in. I sometimes brake hard and urgently, but those times are few and very far between - in this case, I was easing on to the pedal for a nice, pleasant braking experience. The pavement I was driving over was very bumpy and a bit uneven, so I assumed that that was the main cause of my problems, so I continued on with my turn. After I rounded the corner, I felt it yet again. Once I pulled into the parking lot at work, I came to a complete stop. After that, any rumbling in the pedal was completely gone. I drove around the lot at various speeds, trying to recreate the rumbling, but it never came back. I drove all the way home without any issues at all. The 2-3 times that I felt the rumbling in the pedal, I did not notice any indicators on my dash, nor did the rumbling seem to have any affect on the car’s ability to stop. I have every faith that if I would have needed to stop quickly, I would have been able to safely.
My questions would be: 1.) does this sound like an issue related to the broken tone ring? 2.) If no, what else could I be looking at? 3.) If yes, is the car still safe to drive, or should I look at making time in the not-too-distant future to head to the mechanic? 4.) For anyone with experience, is it possible to JUST change the tone ring and NOT replace the entire half-shaft?
Thanks in advance!