Back in December i purchased a 2003 Impala LS. It has about 103,000 miles on it now. Overall the car runs and drives great. However on very rare occasiions I have noticed if I have to slam on the brakes or really break hard I hear a grinding sound. Now I have only heard it maybe 3 times in the time since buying the car and never hear anything under normal brakeing. I had the brakes checked and was told they didn’t see anything wrong, but what might cause this grinding sound I have heard a few times?
I would venture to say the noise is your ABS activating.
I agree with pete peters. Do you know what ABS feels like when it activates?
I second @“pete peters” . ABS can come on during hard braking and makes a grinding noise. Did you notice the the brake pedal pumping up and down on its own when the noise occurred?
No clue on how it feels when ABS takes over…Couldn’t tell you if the pedals pumped or not…
The first time I slammed on ABS brakes I thought that something was grinding. ABS hits very rapidly, several times a second. You may feel a pulsing in the brake pedal at the same time. Do you have an ABS light that comes on when you start the car? All the lights should come on the dash as a self check, one should say ABS. See if you can find an empty parking lot or stretch of paved road that does not have traffic on it. Get up to 25 and hit the brake pedal as hard as you can and do not let up. If you have ABS you will hear the grinding and and feel the pulsing. ABS is designed to keep your wheels from locking up and allows you to still have some control.
The next time it rains, on a STRAIGHT stretch of road with NO OTHER CAR ANYWHERE NEAR YOU and doing about 20 mph, slam on the brakes for a second. Then you’ll know what ABS feels like for future reference. I rarely need to brake hard, so once a year I do the above to “exercise” the ABS.