I had an interesting experience the other day. I was driving my ABS equipped '00 Hyundai to work at oh-dark-thirty, on a cold winter morning shortly after a bit of rain. The car in front of me touched his brakes, and I followed suit. I heard the ABS light up, and the car fishtailed a bit when I let my foot up off the brakes. I immediately noticed that both the ABS warning light and the red Brake warning light lit up on my dashboard. I let up off the gas and began coasting, looking for a place to pull over. When I found one, I gently touched the brakes to slow down, but just kept on going, and even began to skid a bit sideways. ABS was decidedly not working. At the time, the thought of ice on the road didn’t even enter my mind. I just figured that my brakes were shot. I kept on coasting until I came to another turn-around and was finally able to come to a stop, although I almost overshot it and went into a ditch.
I decided to head back home and drive my truck into work, figuring that my car probably wasn’t safe to drive. After limping along with my hazards on, using the transmission to brake, I finally did make it home. I tried to brake as little as possible, because I figured that there was a good chance that nothing would happen. The few times that I did touch the brakes, the car did slow down, but I didn’t want to take my chances.
Driving my pre-ABS '88 Chevy pickup, I noticed a few cars in the ditch in the same area where my car was acting up. I also began to fishtail while accelerating, until I thought to engage the 4wd. Driving the next 10 miles was interesting, as there were quite a few serious wrecks, and traffic was crawling along at perhaps 10MPH, with plenty of distance between bumpers. Not a salt truck was to be seen. A drive that would normally take me an hour took me more than three hours to complete.
This morning, I decided to limp my car into the shop for service, figuring that I needed a serious brake job, since my dashboard had lit up like a Christmas tree. However, the drive in was uneventful, and after a few minutes the pretty warning lights on my dashboard were decidedly un-lit. I even hit the brakes hard a few times, just to see what would happen, but I stopped normally. The roads were dry, so the ABS remained silent.
The mechanics at my normal garage had a blank look on their face when I explained my symptoms, and said that they weren’t set up to troubleshoot ABS performance problems. So, I headed on down to the Hyundai dealership, only to find out that apparently this was a known problem with Hyundais. The guy at the service desk told that when an ABS equipped Hyundai skids on ice, both the ABS warning light and the Brake warning light come on. It’s a bit like one of those generic MS Windows warnings saying ‘Something happened, don’t do it again’. He said that they had several calls this week with problems identical to mine, after Monday’s black-ice surprise.
Anyhow, I am hoping that the dealership wasn’t blowing smoke up my (Anatomy), trying to get rid of me. You would think that he would be trying to ring in business, rather than drive it away. In the past they have proven themselves to be untrustworthy regarding warranty work, even though the warranty on this car tuned into a pumpkin five years ago.
So, in case this happens to me in the future, how do I get my ABS back? After I hit the ice the first time, the ABS did NOT light off, which could be dangerous in the future. Do I fix it the same way I do a Microsoft problem and just reboot the ABS computer (turn the car completely off, then back on again)? The ABS light was on when I started my car this morning, although it went off after about ten minutes. Would ten minutes of idling do the trick, or do I need to drive a certain distance after restarting? I should have asked these questions at the dealership today, but didn’t think about it at the time.
If the ABS light remains on beyond the normal diagnostic check upon startup (a few seconds), something is wrong with the system. Did the dealer bother to scan the ABS controller? That’s the first step.
My one thought is that if the regular brake warning light came on, on most cars that means the fluid in the master cylinder is low. It could be that the fluid level is too low for the ABS to function or that there’s air in the system somewhere now after your hard braking.
“Did the dealer bother to scan the ABS controller? That’s the first step.”
No, the bloody idiot didn’t even want to open the hood. He just patted me on the head and sent me on my merry way. As I mentioned before, my track record with these bums has been less than stellar. After all, I didn’t buy the car at THEIR dealership, why should they give a rip about me?
How long after the light goes out does the ABS controller store error codes? I could try a different dealership, but it may be too late, to recover anything.
“My one thought is that if the regular brake warning light came on, on most cars that means the fluid in the master cylinder is low. It could be that the fluid level is too low for the ABS to function or that there’s air in the system somewhere now after your hard braking.”
The car is due in for service soon. The next time I bring her in, I’ll have the brakes double-checked as well.
The computer for the system must not be able to figure things out and gets confused. Under the worst possible conditions, the system is really confused. When cars are running off the road, we shouldn’t try to drive at all, no matter what system our car is equipped with. We have to use the computer we were born with. They work better than the mechanical ones, but we have to deliberately engage them.
Why not open the brake fluid reservoir and check the fluid level so that on your way to the service center you don’t lose your brakes completely and get flattened by a truck or something?
Why only take it to one Hyundai dealer? It sounds like you have good reason not to trust the one you went to. Are they the only Hyundai dealer in your area? You could also try other non-dealer shops that might be better than your normal garage. Talk to your friends and see if they can recommend someone. Don’t give up on this. As you can tell, properly working ABS is pretty valuable.