My S is the first car I have had with ABS so I am not use to any sounds it makes or what not. On my way back from lunch a girl in front of me stopped short so I had to lay into the brakes in order to stop in time. My tires did not lock up but I did hear something mechanical sounding (the best I can do really to describe it since I had the radio going) coming from the front of the car as it slowed...I am guessing ABS? I know that if I hear a clicking sound at low speeds its the ABS doing its test (read about it in another thread) but am not too sure about anything else sound wise.

Am I going insane or should I just not worry about it??

Thanks
Joey

 

When the ABS kicks in it will make a strange mechanical noise and you might feel pulsing in the brake pedal. Go to an empty parking lot and try it out.

 

Under normal braking there should be no sound. Under heavy braking where the car may skip or be sliding, the brakes will sound similar to hhmmmm.... come to think of it i cant describe it. Mostly just a repetitive thumping.

 

The ABS system doing a self test should not make any really discernable noise. What you experienced is the ABS doing its job. To get more familiar with the way it feels and the way it sounds, I would suggest you take the car onto a loose surface like a back alley, wet road, sandy road or the like and make the ABS work. You don't have to go very fast (maybe 10 to 15 mph) and then mash the brake pedal. This will familiarize you with the normal way things work with the ABS so that when you encounter it in daily driving, you won't be wondering if it's normal or not.
It's actually not a bad idea to "work" the ABS in this manner. Most people, in their daily drives won't use the brakes hard enough to get ABS intervention. "Excercising" the ABS in the way I described is not a bad thing to do once in a while to keep all those little ABS pistons in good shape.

 

Very good idea, I never thought of that!

 

Thanks for the quick answers!! I will have to try and find some place to get use to the system and defiantly remember Vipers advice about working the system out from time to time. I figured it was that but since I have never really experienced it before I was not sure.

 

To me it feels like pushing your foot into a glas bowl filled with glas marbles.
Nice'n crunchy