2000 Blazer 4wd, 4 wheel disc brakes.
I was backing out of the driveway when I applied the brakes. The truck felt like it was sliding, I assumed it was due to ice on top of the snow. It did the same thing coming up to stop sign down the street. The third time it happened I realized the ABS wasn’t kicking in. I pumped the brakes hard a few times, the ABS kicked in and the brake were fine for the remainder of the drive.
The day before I used the truck to clear out my driveways after the entrances were plowed in. The snow was 1 to 2 ft deep in front of the driveways. The temperature was around freezing, this morning it was 15 degrees.
Is it possible there was enough frozen slush on the calipers to keep the brakes from applying?
I guess anything is possible, but modern vacuum assisted hydraulic brake pressure is pretty strong and there would have to be a lot of snow and ice on the calipers to cause a problem. My guess is that your ABS doesn’t work at slow speed. All manufacturers have their own specs on how fast you have to be moving before the ABS will kick in. It’s also possible that there was snow or ice (since you drove through a pile 1-2 feet deep) on the ABS sensors which blocked the signal, there is only a small degree of clearance between the rotor and magnetic pick up, so I think if it was shorted out with ice or snow, that might cause your problem. Then after you got moving, it cleared itself up.